Star Wars: Journey Through Time
by StarsWarsMike18
Summary: An epic Star Wars journey that covers multiple periods. A team of Sith discover a way to travel through time. Other Sith want to destroy them. No one is safe. No time period is safe. For fans of the Knights of the Old Republic series!
1. Chapter 1

**Star Wars: Journey Through Time**

 **Prologue**

 **1**

"There's two fighters behind us, and you're trying to change the the music we're listening to. Is that the gist of it?" Ulon Belamish asked angrily. He fired the blaster cannons and destroyed the fighter right in front of _Ryloth Spear_.

"Well Master," Zeke Nekor said mildly, "I just think an epic mission deserves an epic soundtrack, don't you think?" Zeke reached above him and pressed buttons rapidly, but his face remained calm.

"You're the worst co-pilot ever. This isn't a Holovid on the Net," Ulon said, as lasers trailed all around the expensive ship. Then one of the fighters scored a hit, and the _Ryloth Spear_ jerked forward as it's shields absorbed the blow. "Can you stop tinkering with the deflector shield settings, and turn on the damn auto-turret?"

Smiling, Zeke said, "I suppose you mean the anti-fighter one, not the smaller anti-personnel one, correct?"

"You are most wise, my apprentice." Ulon teased, suddenly smiling himself as the auto-turret fired enough shots to blow up one of the pursuing fighters, and make the other one break off its attack. Ulon wasted no time in turning the ship so that the pursuer was now being hunted. The _Ryloth Spear_ 's powerful weapons tore through the smaller one-man craft instantly. "And that's how it's done," the blue Twi'lek boasted.

"Most excellent my Master, however, a squad of five more fighters is incoming at these coordinates. I'm most certain your prowess will make short work of them." Zeke turned towards his Master and smiled once more.

"I hate how chipper you are. You always gotta look at the positive side of things. I can't even tell when you're being sarcastic," the Twi'lek spat.

"I'm _never_ sarcastic!" the aquatic Nautolan exclaimed.

Ulon Belamish gave his apprentice a long look, then directed his attention back to the battlefield. Five more dagger-shaped pirate ships to go, then they were supposed to land on the asteroid base and fight their way to the leader of the pirates, as per their lord's desires. " _You must bring me his head, this trouble maker will be paraded through the streets of our capital to inform the entire Sith Empire what happens when you ignore our decrees!"_

After making swift work of the five fighters, the duo landed in the asteroid's hangar bay. It had been carved out long ago to be a Republic space station, but the Republic eventually decided they didn't need an outpost this far out from the core, thus, pirates eventually moved in.

Two squads were there to meet them, and they immediately rained small-arms fire upon their ship. The ship's shields protected them easily enough.

"Now?" Neko asked.

"Yes Kilvaari." Ulon agreed. The smaller Anti-personnel turret was deployed, and returned fire on the pirates while _Ryloth Spear_ landed. By the time the repulsors shut off, Ulon and Neko were already outside finishing the last of the pirates. Ulon's red double-bladed lightsaber flared and flashed as he swung it at opponents and deflected their bolts back into them. One brave soul came at him with a vibroblade. The melee encounter did not last long.

"Master Ryl, you've done it again. You only left me one this time, but it's okay. I will just have to move faster next time."

Ulon Belamish who was now known as Darth Ryl, glanced at Zeke Nekor whom also abandoned his birth name for the title Darth Kilvaari. He shook his head. _He hasn't changed. He's still weak and good-hearted. He'll never try to overthrow me, or usurp my power. He's lucky he was even granted the 'Darth' title._ "Let's go. We have a head to retrieve."

 **2**

"That things smells. Can you put it back in the container?" Darth Ryl commanded rather than asked. _Ryloth Spear_ was in hyperspace, travelling at the speed of light. Blue lights illuminated the cockpit as entire star systems flew past them every nanosecond. Ryl used the downtime to check his gear, and clean it properly.

Darth Kilvaari was holding the dead pirate's head in his lap, and making it look at Ryl. "I just think it's kind of creepy. Should we close his eyes?"

"Blast it, just put that thing away before I chop off your head next!"

"Way _ahead_ of you! At least he's one with the Force now," Kilvaari said, before pressing a button and opening a container. Then he dropped the head in and sealed it. "So Master, you said you wanted to talk to me about something before the mission is done?"

Sighing, Ryl tried to think back. He still had the battle fever, as he always did after killing. "Ah. Yes. That I did. This mission is the last one we're going to be doing for the three High Lords. Or at least for me. You can do whatever you want, see if I care."

Darth Kilvaari was juggling three thermal detonators with the force, spinning them in a circle. His eyes were closed, but he still had a smile.

When his apprentice didn't say anything, he continued. "I've been in contact with some hacker kid. He may have hacked some highly encrypted files belonging to our dear friend."

At that, Kilvaari's eyes opened. "You mean Lord Kren?"

"Yes I do, and stop that will you? I don't plan on dying anytime soon." Ryl used the force to pull Kilvaari's thermal detonators to his hand.

"But if Lord Kren finds out, you're going to be in deep bantha poodoo. Although I bet you could beat him in a fight."

Kilvaari closed his eyes once more, and Ryl figured that he was imagining the fight in his head. _Why does he admire me so much?_ "Screw Kren, and the rest of the High Council. I don't need them. I never have. Anyway, the files detail a plan. Kren plans to gather something called the Sacred Time Shards and use the force to open a dimensional time rift to get to the past. With these shards you can manipulate time itself. There's more, but I care more about these so called Force Shards than his plan." Ryl took a glass out and poured him some Corellian ale. "I've found one shard, and I'm gonna steal the other two from Kren before he can use it. Then, I'm going to go back in time." He took a big swig from his drink.

"Master, that all sounds pretty crazy! Are you going to go back to before you were a Sith Lord, I wonder?"

Ignoring his question, Darth Ryl, Dark Lord of the Sith, asked his own instead. "So are you with me Darth Kilvaari?" _If he's not, I'll probably have to kill him right here and now. That'd be a damn shame._

Darth Kilvaari sprang from his seat, and for a second, Ryl thought he had read his mind, but Kilvaari went straight to one knee. "Master, I pledge myself to you and your secrets. My power is your power. My strength is yours. My knowledge is your knowledge. My body is yours to command. Wherever you go, I will follow."

Darth Ryl couldn't help himself, his lips curled into a smile at the edges.

 **Chapter One**

 **1**

The duo walked throughout the palace, passing by Sith of all different ranks and races. Lords, Masters, Apprentices, Marauders, Assassins, Acolytes, Guards, and so on. Most of them were garbed in the traditional black Sith robes or darkened armor. Darth Ryl himself wore a dark tunic, lightly armored so that he could utilize speed in combat. His blue skin was marked all over by his black tattoos that symbolized his devotion to the Sith Order. Darth Kilvaari wore a brown tunic, even lighter and less protective than his masters, but he had been hesitant about tattooing his light green skin. Ryl once told him "It doesn't matter how many tattoos you get anyway, you'll never have the intimidating look of the Sith."

Two seven foot tall Sith guarded the entrance to the High Council's chambers. They stared straight forward until Ryl ordered them to let them in. "I have urgent business with the High Lords." He gestured to the container his apprentice carried.

The guard nodded, and they walked in. The chamber was dark with a reddish glow, and the seats were uselessly higher than they had to be. "The Lords think that height will make them seem more powerful and intimidating than they really are," Ryl had told Kilvaari once.

"Hello my Lords," Ryl said, while going to one knee. Kilvaari did the same.

"Ah, Darth Ryl. It's very good to see you my old friend. Did you make your little fish of a Padawan Learner into a Sith Warrior yet?" asked Lord Ves the Cruel.

"That one will never be a warrior. He's doomed to follow his weak Master like a pet dog," spat Lord Kren the Shadow.

Ryl did his best to hide his anger, especially knowing the High Lords could sense it. He wasn't afraid, only intent on denying them the satisfaction. Kilvaari was obediently silent while the masters spoke.

"Now, now. Settle down. Let Darth Ryl tell us of his last mission," spoke Lord Sorhaul the Wise, the oldest member on the High Council. He is known as wise mostly for being able to survive being such a high ranking leader in Sith Society for so long.

Darth Ryl gestured to his Apprentice, who opened the container and took out the severed head. "My Lords, I am most honored to show you the work of Darth Ryl the Mighty." Kilvaari held the head out for all to see, then Lord Ves the Cruel yanked the head from his hand with the force and brought it to his own for closer inspection.

"Ah yes. This is him. He had been a nuisance for too long, but not enough a threat to warrant an army, even a small one. You've done good work yet again Darth Ryl." Lord Ves let the head drop to the floor.

"How goes your rule on Utapau?" Lord Sorhaul asked.

"Much better than this rock." Ryl replied immediately. He never liked Korriban.

"Watch yourself Twi'lek," Kren warned.

Sorhaul only chuckled. "Yes. Well, a good job done. You may return there, until we have further need of you."

"Yes my Lords," Ryl said while bowing in unison with Kilvaari, who was as smiley as ever. As they left the chamber they passed by Darth Syntheon entering. The guards didn't say so much as a word to him. Syntheon had a reputation for killing both Jedi and Sith alike. The pale skinned android was rumored to absorb human flesh so it could maintain a connection to the living Force.

"What now Master?" Kilvaari asked, as impatient as ever.

"Wait until we reach the ship Kilvaari. Don't be naive or stupid. Don't forget where we are." Then just as he finished his sentence, a figure rolled out from behind a pillar and ignited their blade. It was a black Darksaber. The blade slashed rapidly at Darth Ryl, but he dodged it and then ignited his own twin-bladed lightsaber. The armored figure kicked at him, and Ryl flew backwards, but landed on his feet. The armored man was already continuing his attack. A downward slash was parried, then a vertical slash almost broke the blade in two, but Ryl whirled just in time and delivered a spin kick to the man's helmeted head.

The Mandalorian's armor was too heavy to allow the fighter to land on his feet, so he fell on his butt. He turned off his darksaber and took off his helmet. "As sharp as ever Ulon." Darth Ryl helped him to his feet. "I see your apprentice has learned not to try to save you when I catch you off guard like that. I guess even a Bantha can learn!"

"Oh please, when did you catch me off guard? Please inform me."

"Hello Master Animosity. Nice to see you and that rare blade once more." Kilvaari said, cheerily.

"I just called you dumber than a Bantha, and you say it's nice to see me? Heh. I've always kind of liked that about you kid." Mektar Kelborn wiped some dirt off of his armor. "So shall we talk?"

 **2**

"My lords, I must speak to Lord Kren about a personal issue of much importance," the cold voice stated. The other two High Lords looked at one another.

"Surely you could have sent him a message, or rather waited for our sessions to come to an end, couldn't you, Master Syntheon?" Lord Sorhaul asked.

Climbing down the steps of his high chair, High Lord Kren spoke to his political equals. "I believe I know of which matters Syntheon speaks, and it is quite a dire situation for me. If you two would be so kind as to excuse me. I'm certain you both could go about the business without me. If there is anything urgent, I suppose you could leave me a holomessage or something." He smiled wickedly at that, and left with Darth Syntheon while Ves and Sorhaul exchanged yet another look.

When Kren was in his personal quarters, he checked his room thoroughly to ensure there were no taps or unwanted cameras watching him. "Guards, leave us." He trusted his personal guard very much, and they were sworn to die for him if need be, but Kren would take no extra chances. "Syntheon, this better be about Project Quasar or something of equal importance, or I'll have your robotic head for interrupting the High Council and I'll use the rest of you as a refrigerator."

The part-human android was unphased. "My lord. I have discovered a hack in your system. Project Quasar has been… compromised."

"WHAT?" Kren could hardly keep from shouting. His dark side energy flared up all around him. "How could this possibly be, you assured me we had unbreakable encryptions. Who was it?" Kren picked up a priceless vase telekinetically and then chucked it at a wall, shattering it. "WHO?"

"It was supposed to be unbreakable. I have never heard of anyone hacking past the firewalls I used. Not even other droids. I don't know who it was, but the news is not all bad my lord. I've set up extra alarms, the kind that cannot be avoided. Silent ones too. Don't access your files or you will set them off yourself. As soon as our hacker taps more deeply into the files, I will know exactly who and where they are."

Kren stared at the monstrosity before him. "And if they don't delve further into the files, and instead decide to sell it to one of the other council members?"

His eyes flashed blue momentarily as his synthetic brain computed and processed information. "Presuming the hacker isn't a droid, there is only a 12% chance they will be able to resist the temptations of digging deeper into your files. They will have realized how expensive our defense protocols were that they broke. Therefore, if they did hack us to sell the information to the highest bidder, they will still want to know exactly how critical the information is before they sell so they don't undervalue their content. No one likes to get less credits when they could have earned more. Even if the information is sold without further digging, they will still need a hacker of the same caliber to get past the final firewalls and encryptions. In that scenario we still find them, just with less time. I suggest scattering teams of loyal assassins to each local system, to be ready at a moment's notice to apprehend and eliminate the target." The blue and white humanoid figure tapped buttons on its forearm. "I've already alerted my forces to remain on standby."

Kren sighed. "Do whatever you need to do. I want this hacker dead and my plans safe. If the other High Lords find out my plan, we're both dead. Don't forget that Syntheon. Now go alert the others to be ready to move on with the rest of the operation at a moment's notice. Just one more shard to go. The sooner, the better. Sorhaul is growing more suspicious every week."

Wires and veins alike shot out from Syntheon's arm and wrapped around Kren's neck. They lifted him off the ground. "I am happy to serve my lord, but threaten me one more time, and I might just absorb you and your pitiful human life force in it's entirety. I could just as easily destroy you now as I could betray you and all of our compatriots to the other lords. Do not forget." The wires and veins both receded back into Syntheon's arm with a snap, and he walked out of Kren's room.

Kren was left there in shock and pain, massaging his neck. _He could have snapped my neck, or electrocuted me, or worse… absorbed me right there, but he didn't. Maybe I should be more careful about sending my guards away around that tin can. Unfortunately I need him more than most of the rest combined. I just need to make sure his ambitions do not overwhelm my own._

 **3**

"I can't believe that thick-headed Mandalorian asked me if I was scared. To me, it just seems like killing two Mynocks with one stone." Darth Ryl said. He was in his natural habitat: The _Ryloth Spear_.

"Well Master, he did have a point. Are you so certain this hacker is going to die? Can't you just warn him when he sends us the hacked files?" Darth Kilvaari was counting out the credits earned from looting after the last mission.

"No. One, if someone does know he hacked Lord Kren, that means him and all of his transmissions are being watched. Even the encrypted and secret ones could be at risk. I don't wanna get this far, just to make a stupid mistake. Two, if we save his life, maybe he'll reduce what he's charging us. I am gonna need some good money for my plan." They came out of hyperspace with a lurch, and Taris was now in full view.

 _Ryloth Spear_ sent it's docking codes and paid the transaction fee and began appropriate landing procedures.

"I still don't get it. The old you would just kill this hacker after we get what we want. Now you're saving him, _and_ paying him?"

To that, Ulon Belamish didn't have a proper answer. Or at least one he cared to give. After a moment he said, "He's a skilled hacker. He may prove useful one day in the future. A true Sith knows how to utilize resources." Kilvaari's face said that he didn't think Ryl believed his own words much either. Ulon put on a necklace with a holostransmitter attached. He pressed a button, and his black Sith tattoos disappeared. "You know this isn't my first vision having to do with this world? One day, the Sith will burn it to the ground," he said, changing the subject.

"The Sith will burn many things to the ground. Perhaps this planet will be Lord Kren's doing." Kilvaari said earnestly. "Though, I'm sure we'll be okay."

Darth Ryl glared at him. "Whatever. Do you have the credits?"

"Five hundred thousand Republic Credits. We only have three hundred thousand left after this. Perhaps we can mug him without taking his life Master?"

"I suppose it depends on what's more useful. The five hundred thousand, or the hacker."

An Ithorian ran to their ship as they walked down the ramp. "Need any refueling? Repairs? Chi-Losh Ryman can do all!" he exclaimed in better basic than Ryl expected.

Ryl surprised him as he threw a blaster pistol into the Ithorian's hands. He looked into the alien's eyes and said "If anyone tries to go near this ship, I want you to blast them."

"If anyone goes near your ship, Chi-Losh Ryman will blast them." Darth Ryl pushed his way past him after that. "That blaster will send an alert to my datapad if he uses it."

Darth Kilvaari was looking behind them at the Ithorian. "Neat trick my Master. How long will that last?"

"Long enough."

The tall skyscrapers and buildings were everywhere on Taris. The planet is known to some as the 'Jewel of the Outer-Rim', but to Darth Ryl it looked more like a carbon copy of Coruscant without all of the galactic importance. Darth Ryl, an avid reader, had taught himself all of the high-class and low-class districts. The hierarchy on Taris was very symbolic not unlike it's Core World twin. The lower you are on the planet, the lower you are in society and vice versa. Not only that, but he had looked into the background of his informant long before even hiring him. He grew up with a rich family, but now lives in the slums of lower levels.

As the two Sith descended down the levels of the city, Ryl noted that more and more aliens were common and less humans. Darth Ryl heard basic less and less. Luckily, he knows over fifty languages and can speak almost ten.

Four hours and a speeder ride later, they were in the same district and level as the hacker when Ryl received a message from him.

"So, I noticed you've come to my homeworld. I hope you know I'm not such a fool as to give a Sith my work for free. So what gives?"

"Who was that?" Kilvaari asked while Ryl read the message on his datapad. The short range communications were set to delete themselves after being read.

"Our friend has noticed we've come to his planet. He's suspicious."

"Sounds like he's got common sense as well as tech smarts," Kilvaari said, smiling.

"Your life is in danger. We've come to escort you off-world and retrieve the files. We have the credits."

After ten minutes and no response, Darth Ryl turned to his apprentice. "If he hasn't answered yet, it means that he's doing what I'd do in his shoes. I'd take my chances and make a run for it, then try to resume the deal through communications. I know where he hangs out, but if we lose him now, we might never find him again. We need to move in quickly."

"Uh, Master?"

Darth Ryl turned around to find his apprentice surrounded by about twelve aliens with their blasters and vibroblades out.

 **4**

"We need to get going, NOW!" Darien shouted. He was stuffing an assortment of items into his huge backpack. Two blaster pistols, a thermal detonator, three bacta syringes, his hacking tools, a comlink, and more still.

"I still need to find my hair dryer!" Zero replied, similarly ripping apart their apartment.

"Trust me when I say that you _definitely_ _don't_ _need that_. Just weapons, food, bacta, credits, stims, anything we can sell, and so on. Hurry up Zero!"

"Fine, but I'm still bringing my comb," Zero said, as he grabbed a heavy duty assault rifle. "Do you really think this Sith will betray you?"

Darien face palmed. "Great. Bring a comb, some pants, maybe some extra pairs of underwear too. Whatever you think you need. Sometimes I wish I didn't install that program," he mumbled. "And do I think a Sith will betray me? Noooo, that could never happen! They're known throughout the galaxy as the protectors of peace and justice. They would never go back on a deal. _Oh wait no,_ that's the Jedi!" he said sarcastically. He put on his brother's helmet. It was a deep dark blue with a retractable visor. "Are you ready yet?"

"Just a minute." Zero replied.

"What are you doing in there Zero?" Darien Garr asked. Zero was in the bathroom and Darien was losing his patience.

Zeru came out wearing a bronze cape. It matched his bronze metal plates throughout his robotic body. His three white eyes looked at Darien, and his foot tapped as he waited to hear what he thought of the cape.

"Um. Yeah it's great. Looks real… bronze. Now let's go older brother. Our time is short, ok?" Zero went to go wait by the door. Darien placed a detpack under his bed, and another in the kitchen. Then he hacked them both via his suit's interface so it could be sensor-activated.

"What if your bombs cost us the five hundred grand?" Zero asked.

"Then maybe my clients will start learning not to try to sneak up on me. Plus it could do me a little good if some people think we're dead."

"What about the potential clients who are looking for us?"

Darien's face dropped into a frown. He clearly hadn't thought about that. Then he finished off a bottle of whiskey and dropped it. "Sometimes, living requires sacrifices, I guess. That bed sucked anyway." Then they left.

As Darien locked his apartment door behind him, he heard Zero gasp. He turned to find the dead corpses of all of his complexes' neighbors littering the hallway floors. Then four dark armored assassins de-cloaked in front of him. There was blood on their blades. Darien wondered if this was his client's doing, or if he was telling the truth. Zero seemed to think he knew though, because he said "You just haaad to finish decrypting the rest of the files, huh little brother?"

 **5**

"Darth Kilvaari, can I leave these… _cretins_ to you?" Darth Ryl asked, as they began inching their way closer to the two of them. Some of them had managed to cut off his escape as well. There were several Rodians, a Twi'lek like him but green skinned, a Weequay, and a Gamorrean. Not a single Human, Ryl noted.

"You can my Master. I will catch up!" Darth Kilvaari's anxious smile sprouted from his face. He was anxious to impress his Master. They both knew he wasn't the best duelist out there, but nonetheless he had always wanted to prove his worth to Darth Ryl.

"You're not going anywhere!" shouted a Rodian in his native language. "Their armor looks expensive!" commented another. A Gamorrean grunted in pleasure-filled agreement.

Darth Ryl ignored them, and nodded at his Sith Apprentice before doing a graceful triple backflip and landing behind the thugs that blocked his path. About half of them were too stunned to do anything, but the Twi'lek shouted at them. "Fire, fire, fire! Don't let him escape!" The ones with blasters opened fire and Darth Ryl was already dashing away when he reached for his lightsaber. He didn't need to activate it though, Darth Kilvaari managed to get in-between him and the shots, deflecting them harmlessly into the surrounding walls, although one managed to catch a Rodian in his throat.

Darth Ryl tapped into his force abilities, and used the force to guide his feet so that he would not stumble as his dash increased speed and got faster and faster. He flew past several civilians and their apartments. At one point, he saw up ahead that more gang members were mugging some bystanders and he was careful to ignite his lightsaber at just the right time to cut the two armed criminals in half. Before the couple he saved could thank him, he was gone. He didn't even bother stopping. It would take more than petty criminals to stop his sprint.

He came to a stop, and took thirty seconds to catch his breath, then checked his datapad. Just one elevator ride away. He hoped he'd be in time to catch the hacker. As Darth Ryl waited in the elevator wondering if the stairs would have been quicker, he began to sense Dark Side adjacent presences. It appeared time was shorter than he thought.

 **6**

Darth Kilvaari ran past a Gamorrean who swung a short axe at him, and then slid and used his momentum to get past two more armed fighters. Then he jumped up and ignited his red lightsaber to fend off the blaster bolts aimed at his master. One landed in the hallway wall. Then two, three, and a fourth. The fifth Kilvaari redirected into a Rodian's neck as he caught his footing.

"He's a Jedi!" the green skinned Twi'lek shouted. Darth Kilvaari always thought of his Master when he saw aliens of his same race, even if they were different skin colors. "Let's kill him and earn the reputation of Jedi killers for the Red Fangs!"

 _You may be disappointed in more than one area then,_ Kilvaari thought, but didn't waste the time saying. He instantly moved in towards the closest target. One slash, then two. He proceeded to pick up and fling the dead Weequay into two of his comrades. _Don't hesitate to knock down your opponents if an opportunity arises. Anything to slow their attack, or weaken their resolve can and will save your skin. Especially when you're fighting multiple opponents._ His master had taught him that lesson so long ago.

Kilvaari used the force to grip another thug's hand right as he pulled his trigger, but he was shocked to realize that his hand was aiming at the Gamorrean in front of him, rather than the person they thought to be a Jedi.

He threw a slash that cut both of the gang members as they tried to get up after having the Weequay chucked onto them. The Gamorrean that was shot was still on his feet, and now charging Kilvaari, while a Rodian joined him. Kilvaari made sure not to forget the Twi'lek who seemed to be their leader, but Kilvaari mostly paid attention to him because he was lining up a shot with his heavy duty blaster pistol.

His crimson blade clashed with the Rodian's vibroblade three times before Kilvaari ducked under a swing of the fat pig creature's axe. He force pushed the Gamorrean away so he could deal with the Rodian. To his credit, the teal-skinned alien did better than Kilvaari expected, but his vibroblade skills could not prevent Kilvaari's faint that he used to trick his opponent into opening his guard. Then the Sith opened his throat and kicked him away. At that same instant, the Twi'lek Sergeant fired, but his shot was reflected straight into the Gamorrean. He didn't survive that one. _Good shot, that would have taken off my head if I was an ordinary opponent._

The Sergeant knew the fight was lost. He turned to flee and took out a plasma grenade. Kilvaari could have left to meet back up with his Master, but instead he dashed at the surviving thug and cut off the arm holding the grenade. The Twi'lek whirled and squealed in pain, but his other hand was already moving the blaster back into place. Before he could shoot it, Darth Kilvaari's red lightsaber pierced his chest in a forward thrust. The battle took only about five minutes. He hoped that would please Darth Ryl. He quickly looted the Sergeant and left the rest of them to their new graves.

 **7**

"Get back in the room Lesh," Zero said. He took his blaster rifle off of his back and aimed it at the nearest target.

 _Using my fake alias, pretty smart,_ "I'm not leaving you that easy brother, sorry!" Then, without saying a single thing, the four assailants lunged forward. Darien Garr threw down a smoke grenade, and two of them backed up before he even threw it. As the smoke ascended and dispersed, the first assailant swung a blooded double-sided vibroblade at Zero. He fired his heavy blaster rifle point blank, blowing the fool away. Zero immediately emptied out the rest of his clip on the second one, but that one had a little more distance and agility. He dodged the fire with a roll. His speed didn't help him too much though, because he still forgot about Darien. Darien landed two bolts on the assassin who fell backwards and dropped his blade.

The other two were already charging again through the smoke. Darien could hear them, but it was getting harder and harder to see them. The smoke became so thick, Darien couldn't see Zero, but he did see his blaster rifle as it slid on the floor in his direction. Then there were clangs from metal on metal combat. _Zero must be using his arm vibroblade then…_ Darien grabbed the blaster rifle and backed up towards his apartment. "Zero! To me!"

Zero was fighting with the assassin who kicked away his weapon, when he heard Darien call out. Zero used his lifeform scanner to see through the smokescreen more easily. He retracted his vibroblade back into his arm, then fired his wrist blaster directly into the assassin's face. He could see the heat signature of the last assassin moving towards where he heard the blaster fire.

Zero joined Darien and so the human and droid entered the apartment together. "How many?" Darien asked.

"There were four." Zero replied quickly.

"No you dolt, how many are left?" Darien shot the glass in the window of their apartment and it shattered loudly.

"One and a half." Zero said mildly. They went to the edge of the window. They heard the assassin breaking down the locked door.

"How could there be a 'half' of someone left? Eh, forget about it. Let's go." Together they jumped from the 33rd floor window. The assassin broke down the door and went towards the window. Darien pressed buttons on his wrist as they fell.

"Where are we going?" Zero yelled, mid-falling. Then all sound was drowned out from the explosion in their apartment, which flung the last assassin out the same window they jumped from. A speeder appeared beneath them, and Zero landed on his robotic feet gracefully while Darien practically face planted. The auto-hacked speeder flew away as glass rained down where the vehicle had just been hovering.

A Nataulon watched as the speeder drove off, leaving behind a rain of glass and a Sith Assassin's corpse which landed with an appalling crunching noise. Darth Kilvaari quickly threw a tracking device as hard and fast as he could, and used the force to guide it and increase it's speed. It landed on the craft and Darth Kilvaari jumped up in joy.

The window in the next apartment over shattered and a couch was falling rapidly a second later. Kilvaari saw Darth Ryl on top of it. When it was ten meters off the ground he jumped off eloquently and landed in a crouch. As he stood up, Darth Kilvaari saw that he was smiling. He liked when his master was smiling.

"Let us go catch us a data jockey."

 **8**

"I'm thinking Alderaan. Maybe Scarif, or even an ocean world like Manaan or Mon Cala." Darien said. He knew he needed to ditch the speeder he stole very soon. He could only imagine how many Tarisian police forces were swarming his former apartment as they spoke.

"I'm not so sure we have enough credits to live on those worlds, let alone get to them Dar," Zero said. His finger had turned into a swiveling mop like object, and he was polishing the smoke, dirt and grime off of his bronze armor.

"We'll make due Bro, we always do, and always have. I mean those were some pretty well trained assassins back there, and we-" he was interrupted when the back of their speeder exploded, Darien was flung from the passenger seat, but Zero hauled him down with one arm and took control of the speeder with his other.

"Hold on tight." Zero said, angling the speeder from a downward crash to a forward scrape.

"Damn it all," Darien said, putting his safety belt on, and preparing for a crash landing. He hugged his backpack and put his brother's helmet back on. "Be ready to return fire when we land!" Then they crashed with a loud metallic scraping noise. Sparks flew everywhere as the smaller flaming speeder scraped several meters before crashing into a parked land speeder.

Darien was sighing in relief, and recovering from the whiplash, when Zero opened fire with his heavy repeating blaster rifle. A dark armored figure ignited a red blade, and deflected the shots with the saber he held in a reverse grip. "I used the force to crush your repulsor engines. I can do the same thing to your chest and that one's plasma core in an instant. You're lucky I prefer a fight," the figure said, before getting impaled by another red lightsaber.

Another speeder hovered nearby, and a similarly garbed Twi'lek jumped down and recalled his lightsaber. He walked over and finished the other assassin. Zero lifted his rifle to fire but Darien jumped out of the speeder and held out his hand to stop his droid compatriot. "You're Darth Ryl, right?"

The figure turned and looked him in the eyes. "I warned you kid. Now forget the droid, you're coming with us," his tone was compassionless.

"What droid?" Zero asked, but Darien was busy weighing his options. The pilot of the speeder Darth Ryl jumped from would most likely be another Sith as well.

"We'll go with you, but I warn you. I've put firewalls of my own on the data. You'll need me to unlock it."

"They know who you are, and where you are. More powerful ones than this one will find you. Come with me right now, before they realize I helped you. If they do, you'll be in more trouble than me. Do you understand what you've gotten yourself into yet, worm?"

Darien Garr the Third rolled his eyes, and shrugged. "Let's go hang out with some Sith, Zero. Could be fun." He may have pretended to be light hearted, but deep down, he hoped this wouldn't be his last mistake.

 **9**

 _Well, they haven't killed me yet…_ Darien thought. Him and Zero were in the cramped back compartment of _Ryloth Spear_ , facing each other. A huge part of him had wanted to try to sneakily point his blaster at the back of their heads, and open fire, but he didn't. Nor did he ask Zero to try either. These Sith weren't stupid. They left them with their weapons because they didn't fear them, not because they trusted them or forgot. Plus he had heard many Sith and Jedi had eyes in the back of their heads, although the assassin that tried to kill him was only the second force user he had ever met.

"So, where are you taking me?" Darien asked. Zero had been awfully quiet. The co-pilot chair swiveled around, the aquatic nautolan smiled at him. It creeped Darien out.

"Sounds like you guys can do a pretty good job at defending yourselves, huh? My Master told me about the four Sith Assassins you slew by your apartment. You two must be more skilled than you look!"

"Hold your tongue Kilvaari. Don't forget those four were low-level assassins. They can't even wield lightsabers or use the force." Darth Ryl's voice was all ice, and his eyes were facing forward through the viewport. He pressed a button on his necklace, and black markings appeared throughout his body.

"We were outnumbered by big bad Sith, and we took them out. Are you jealous, or mad because they were friends of yours?" Darien said, and Zero gave him what could be interpreted as a reprimanding look.

"They weren't. It matters not. My Apprentice has your credits." Kilvaari handed him a briefcase filled with the chips. "Now I want you to upload and unlock all of the files onto my Ship's systems. If I find out you've withheld any information, I will kill you. If you trick me in any way, I will kill you. If you-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. No need to get so.. _blue_ about it." Darth Ryl turned in his seat, and glared at the human hacker.

"Just get to it, hacker."

"I have a name you know! Besides, hacker is so… well, so pretentious sounding. But whatever. The sooner I get to spend these creds, the better. And I guess I owe you a thanks for saving me," he cleared his throat, "Uh, us, back there. We appreciate it." He began using his suit's interface to transfer the data files he spent days hacking and decrypting. "Ah, yeah. There was an alarm here. That must be how they found me."

"I oughta deduct that from your pay, computer boy."

"Trust me, no one you hired would find this trap. And I'm not a boy," Darien protested.

"That blue suit doesn't make you tough," the Twi'lek said.

"Neither does that blue skin of yours," Darien replied sardonically. Darth Kilvaari stopped smiling and looked at his master with worry. The Sith Master's eyes were closed tightly, then he reopened them and focused entirely on piloting.

The apprentice was reading the files and tapping coordinates into the ship. "Looks like we may need to make a stop before we can let you go. It has to do with the information. We'll need to get the last shard soon before defenses are beefed up even more."

"Yes," Darth Ryl said.

"Hey I didn't sign up for a road trip!" Darien protested once more.

"Well, now that you've been discovered they'll want to protect what's there's. I've already instructed Darth Animosity to join us after he picks up the shards I've retrieved. We'll drop these two off right after."

Darien pictured beaches and warm planets. Anything that was in contrast to the only planet he had ever known, Taris. He looked at the machine that was programmed to think it was his elder brother, and thought _we'll be able to retire soon Zero, I promise._

 **10**

Buildings crumbled and collapsed. The voices of the dying were faint, but persistent. They would die before the fires would. The capital city was ablaze, and Ryl watched. This time was different. When he razed Doonvar VI the first time, he had been triumphant. It was the first planet that had fell before him, a brand new Sith Master, a true conqueror. He felt more empowered and victorious back then.

Now though, it was different. So very different. Now he was in terror. Every scream was dying with his name at their tongues. The fires were more than warm. They were melting him. The entire planet was melting, he was melting and… then Darth Ryl woke up drenched in sweat. He threw the blanket off of him, and was surprised to see the hacker sleeping on the floor, next to his deactivated droid.

He walked a meter to the cockpit and found Kilvaari in his seat. "Good morning Master. Or. Close enough at least. We're an hour out from the planet that Animosity and our shard is awaiting. Cloaking systems have been enabled. They won't see us coming!"

They landed on Yavin II, a barren rock of a world with a few wooded areas, but nothing like it's forest filled cousins. Kilvaari parked next to Animosity's ship. By then Darien and Zero were also awoken.

Darien came out in time to see Ryl and Animosity shake hands. "So this is your tech jockey huh? Nice to meet you Mr. Insect, my name is Darth Animosity."

"Darth Animosity?" Darien chuckled, and then broke out into full laughter. "Jeez, who names you guys." The Sith had lurched forward and grabbed him by the neck. He instantly lifted Darien off the ground, and Zero's arm blade shot out. Ryl and Kilvaari made no move at all. "Wait a minute, you're a Mandalorian, you're no Sith." Darien tried to remove the muscular arm from his throat, but failed.

The Mandalorian threw him onto his back. "I'm a Mando first, true, but I'm also a Sith Master and a proud warrior. I've been a Sith pretty much all of my life, so watch what you say about my heritage and the name I've chosen lad, or you'll find yourself missing a few vital organs in no-time." Zero slowly lowered, then retracted his blade. Animosity glanced at him. "Huh, a MAD series. Quite rare, and really expensive. Haven't destroyed one in a long time." Mektar Kelborn spun on his heels. "Well anyway, here are the speeder bikes. This will be the best way to infiltrate the compound. My scouting droids have found medium resistance."

"There's only two…" Darth Ryl said, staring at the speeder bikes.

"I call shotgun!" Darth Kilvaari said, force jumping onto one.

"Not on your life," Ryl said, and Kilvaari scooted backward so Ryl could sit in front of him.

"That's adorable!" Darth Animosity said, then revved his bike. "Let's go."

"If you do anything to our ships boy, you'll live to regret it. Don't think we can't find you with another hacker if you try somethin'." Then Ryl drove off and Mek followed. The speeder bikes were fast, and in less than a minute, they were out of sight.

 **11**

Darth Animosity climbed up the wall of the abandoned temple and jumped onto the ledge the sentry was walking on. He turned to see what the noise was, but it was too late. Darth Animosity had already grabbed his face and pushed him off the ledge. Darth Ryl and Darth Kilvaari joined him on the ledge. "You're going to need to be quieter than that." Ryl said.

Animosity dropped down behind the next sentry, and snapped his neck with a quick turn of his wrists. "Like that?" he asked through his helmet's voice coder. Ryl thought that Mektar's helmet was a waste of effort. It blocked his visibility, and added weight. Sure he could talk to people inside with it being muted on the outside, but what other true Sith wear helmets to begin with?

"Yes my Lord," Kilvaari said. Darth Ryl could sense the anticipation in him once more, hunger for glory in front of his master. They silently slaughtered their way past many sentries, ignoring whatever ones weren't necessary to get past. Finally, they were outside the safe room.

"This is the vault that the plans your hacker uploaded said the last Force Shard should be in. Be on your guard. I sense someone powerful up ahead." Darth Animosity took out his darksaber, and typed in the code that Darien had transmitted.

The door slid open with a hiss. It was a wide chamber, much bigger than all of the other rooms they had snuck into or past on their way. The Force Shard was on a pedestal in the middle of the room, but directly behind it was a massive armored knight. The knight wore blackened armor with the red markings of the Sith all over it. The figure stood up, and turned to face them.

"Is that who I think it is?" Kilvaari said, suddenly some of the confidence lost in his voice.

"Yeah, it is." Darth Animosity answered. "It's Darth Malice. The dumbest Sith that ever lived, but also considered the best conqueror of our day."

The Sith Conqueror Darth Malice stood almost 3 meters tall. "So you're the traitors who hacked Lord Kren. Darth Ryl and his pet I'm not surprised about, but you Mek? I expected better from you, bwahaha." He lifted a staff that was as tall as him, and Mek yelled at everyone to move. Darth Malice's staff formed a rectangle of red energy at the tip, turning his staff into a Sith Warhammer Saber. The blunt energy was about the size of short Kilvaari. As the Warhammer hit the ground where the three of them had just stood, it discharged red electrical energy in a wave.

When they all landed, the floor shifted below them into an empty square. Darth Ryl immediately caught the ledge and flung himself back onto the floor, but Animosity and Kilvaari plummeted right down. "Idiots," Darth Ryl said angrily, as he watched the floor move back to close the holes they fell through. He hoped that they would survive, but he busy making sure he could do that himself. Darth Malice charged him again, and he swung the cumbersome warhammer horizontally. Darth Ryl ducked it in ease, but barely rolled away in time when Malice quickly brought the hammer back downwards in a crash. _He's so fast and strong. I would barely be able to move that thing let alone swing it like he does._

"Lord Kren knew you fools might try to steal from him. That's why I replaced the Temple Guard. In fact, they are probably on their way to destroy whatever ship you weaklings flew over here in, HA HA HA," the proud warrior mocked. Although Ryl was technically the same rank as Malice, Malice had a way bigger reputation and was known throughout the Sith Empire for his feats. He had been a Sith Master as long as Darth Ryl had even been a Sith.

Darth Ryl activated his double sided lightsaber and moved in for a counterattack. The larger Sith dodged all of the double sided blows and then used his other hand to punch Ryl in the face. The force of his blow sent Ryl flying backwards, but he had to recover fast because Darth Malice was already back in the air with his warhammer in hand. Darth Ryl shot a surge of force lightning at his airborne foe, but Malice moved his massive hammer-saber in the way and it absorbed most of the energy. What wasn't absorbed lingered and Darth Ryl solemnly realized Malice was gonna use his own Force Lightning to aid his attack.

 **12**

"Aren't you supposed to be the fast one?" Darth Animosity asked his friend's apprentice. They were in a dark cavern, possibly even bigger than the room they just fell through.

"I can only do so much while I'm in the air. Sorry!" Kilvaari offered a smile, but he was troubled. He already felt like he was failing his Master, although he had the utmost confidence his Master would defeat the Legendary Darth Malice. "It seems that we are below the temple."

"Yeah, no sh-" A huge metallic door opened, and a beast roared, causing some rocks and stalagmites to fall from the ceiling. "That sounded like a Rancor.." Animosity ignited his Darksaber, although it was barely visible in the dark dungeon. Darth Kilvaari did the same with his saber, the red offering slightly better illumination.

"Um. What's a Rancor?" Darth Kilvaari said. Footsteps boomed as the creature began walking towards them. They still couldn't see it, only hear it. "Should I turn off my weapon, it seems like he's coming to us like a night light."

"No. This thing lives down here. I'm sure it's eyes are adjusted well to the darkness. I sense it's hunger. I'll hold it off. You should go help Ulon." Kilvaari couldn't see Darth Animosity very well, but somehow the Mandalorian began firing four blaster pistols simultaneously. His accuracy seemed pretty on-point, because the Rancor screamed in either pain or annoyance. It began walking faster and faster towards them. When it got closer, Animosity used the flamethrower on his wrist to create a wall of fire. The orange hue appeared on the bronze colored beast. It was five meters tall and very angry looking. " _That_ , is a Rancor." Animosity said, then four blaster pistols hovered out of his pockets and opened fire. Animosity took a fifth from his holster and fired with that one as well, barraging the monster over the flames.

"Okay, I'll find us a way out. Yell if you need any help." Kilvaari said, and darted the opposite way. He'd find the edges of this room. If there wasn't an exit they might be in trouble.

Darth Animosity wasn't yelling for help, but he was definitely yelling battle cries while he fired. He used the force and pulled the creature's foot into the flames and it howled. Mektar Kelborn dashed through the flames and slashed at the monster with the darksaber, barely making it through the thick skin, then he jumped up and jammed the blade into it's eye. He kicked off of it's face as it swung it's massive hand. _If that hand grabs a hold of me, I'm most likely dead from there._ He used the force to throw some rocks at it. The rancor blocked it's face with it's huge hands. Then Darth Animosity launched himself full force into it's chest with a stab. The Rancor fell on it's back and howled once more as Animosity plunged the darksaber deeper and deeper into it's chest cavity. It finger's slowly stopped scraping at the dirt and dust beneath them, when Darth Animosity finally deactivated the saber, and hopped off the beast. _And that makes my third Rancor kill_ …

"Hey, I think I may have found a way out!" Darth Kilvaari exclaimed from a dark corner.

"Let's go then," Darth Animosity said after one last look at the monster he killed. He pitied it in a way. The flames from his flamethrower slowly died out and faded, leaving him to his thoughts and Kilvaari's navigation.

 **13**

"There are five lifeforms headed this way." Zero was scanning the area past the dead trees and dark rocks. Night was coming upon them like a blanket.

"Well, do you think they'll leave us alone if we tell them we're not with the people who came to steal their most prized possessions, or..?"

"I am thinking they won't see it that way. I'm going to set a trap. I don't know why, but people tend to treat you a little nicer Dar, so you will be the bait for the second trap."

 _It's because people don't tend to ask droids questions, they usually just blast them._ Darien made sure his blaster pistol was in it's holster. He took out a death stick and lit it. "They just like my pretty face better, but yeah sure. I'll just be over here." Darien gestured to a flat rock in front of the two ships. After a few more minutes, the sentries found them and fell upon them. Three of them came in range on swoop bikes. Two of them wore the standard silver and black armor of the Sith Empire while the third was in a black robe. Darien puffed out smoke and waved when they got into view.

The three dismounted, with the two soldiers taking out their blaster rifles right away. "What is your purpose on this planet? This is private property," the soldier on the right called out. "Are there anymore in the two ships?" the other soldier asked, while aiming his rifle directly at Darien.

"Relax guys, I just came here for some fresh air. I saw this ship and parked next to it because I thought this was a landing pad."

"Do it," the robed figure ordered, and both soldiers simultaneously threw det packs at the ships. Darien drew his blaster and fired off all of his shots. He managed to hit one of the explosives mid air causing it to detonate prematurely. He quickly took cover behind the rock he was sitting on, and reloaded. The two soldiers ran in opposite directions to flank him behind the rock and remaining smoke from the explosion.

A loud timer went off and green smoke was launched into the face of the one soldier who instantly fell to his knees after triggering Zero's poison trap. Zero fired his heavy blaster from a bush somewhere and the other one went down. The robed figure yelled something into his comlink, and then activated a double sided lightsaber.

 _Damn, if they didn't lockdown their ships so tight I could auto-hack their defenses._ But they did. So he put on his brother's helmet and peered over the rock to fire at the Sith. He deflected both his and Zero's blasts, and Darien barely ducked in time to dodge a reflected bolt. An astromech came out of the Mandalorian's ship and began firing a weak anti-personnel blaster at the Sith as well. It began charging at him. Then the robed figure used the force to call his dead troop's detonator to his hand, then he clicked it and Darth Animosity's ship exploded. Darien was gonna fire another shot, when the other two swoop bike sentires appeared from atop a bluff and they opened fire without hesitation with handheld weapons.

Zero appeared from the brush and fired an electrostatic capturing net from his right arm. It landed directly on the pilot and wrapped around him the same time that it pushed him backward off of his swoop bike. Zero began firing on the other, but could only fire one shot before the Sith began attacking him. The other biker landed a shot on Zero that took out the droid's personal shield. Darien returned fire and one of his bolts caught the man in the face.

Zero's vibroblade moved as fast as the Sith, and he managed to get a cut in, but the Sith Guardian flurried and Zero's right arm fell to the ground. He still swung his left with the vibroblade at his opponent, never stopping. "ZERO!" Darien yelled. He'd empty out his clip into his opponent's back if he wasn't afraid the Sith would flip out of the way and the bolts would hit his friend, no. His brother, instead.

Then the astromech droid with Mandalorian markings fired a bright spark of electricity into one of the swoop bikes and it started back up and flew at both of the duelists. The Sith turned to face the noisy swoop and he cut it into two big pieces. Zero took his chance and jumped at the Sith, who turned to catch his blade. Then a shock of electricity jumped from part of the destroyed swoop and into the Sith who grunted in pain. He was stunned for only a moment, but it was long enough for Zero to plunge his vibroblade into the Sith's forehead and out the back of his head.

"YEAHHH take that you walking bag of bantha droppings!" Mektar Kelborn's voice called out. But when Darien turned around, only his astromech droid was there. And it looked almost as if it were smiling.

 **14**

Darth Ryl was knocked into the wall of the temple, and his own Sith Lightning surged throughout his body. He hadn't felt the jolting power of Sith Lightning in a while, and he felt disgraced to have his own attack sent back at him. Darth Malice was laughing loudly. Ryl couldn't stand it. He had to defeat this guy. He had to get those last two Force Shards. The ability to travel through time was so close, and he could finally fix his biggest mistake. The Force knew as well as he did that he had made plenty of mistakes to fix.

"What are you laughing at you blundering idiot? Did you know I've heard tales that you use such a large weapon to compensate for how small your puny brain is." Darth Ryl, Sith Master and Lord of Utapau, put one hand on his knee and pushed himself back to his feet.

"What did you say to me you little blue twig?" Darth Malice got back into fighting position. His Sith Warhammer was over his shoulder ready to swing at a moment's notice.

"You heard me. I said that you have a small brain, and I intend to find out just how small it really is." Ryl reactivated his signature two-sided saber and dashed at the taller fighter. Malice swung his warhammer to prevent Ryl from getting in reach, but Ryl dodged it. Malice yelled and shot out a kick, but Ryl danced around that as well. Then he crouched and jump slashed upward, damaging Darth Malice's armored shoulder, but not enough. Malice quickly spun around, then he used the other end of the warhammer in a jab that hit Ryl's back. Darth Ryl landed in a roll and turned so he wasn't caught off-guard again.

"Maybe I should give the other side of this thing a sharp edge," Malice said. "Then you'd be a shishkebab already," he laughed heartily once more. Darth Ryl was thinking about how to overcome his enemy when Malice sent a powerful force wave in his direction. Ryl put up a force bubble, but it wasn't enough and the force push sent him reeling backward again. While he was disoriented, Malice picked him up in his force grip, and pulled him towards himself.

Darth Ryl disconnected his lightsaber into two separate ones while his momentum carried him into the arc of Darth Malice's massive weapon. He put his blades in an 'X' formation and blocked the massive energy block and the tip of Malice's staff. The power almost drove his own defending blades into his face. After the blow sent him flying backwards again, Ryl deactivated his sabers before they could maim him accidentally.

As he slid across the temple floor once more, Ryl finally felt the stress of battle. It took a lot of force power to enhance his speed for his earlier attacks, his reflexes to prevent getting caught off guard when Malice pulled him in with the force, and his strength which saved his life by blocking that last attack. His opponent however, didn't seem to be tiring at all. He laughed once more, and Darth Ryl prepared himself after a sad realization. _I'm going to die fighting. I'll try my best, but I will not flee and I will not surrender. This is for you my love._

 **15**

"My lord," Darth Syntheon said with a bow. He was garbed in a dark hood that disguised him since he was usually one of the most noticeable Sith.

"You may speak my friend," Lord Kren said. This time his captain of the guard Darth Raven and two other Kren guards stood at attention by his door.

"There's been a breach on the compound. Project Quasar's keys are under attack. Malice is doing battle with them right now as we speak." Darth Syntheon studied Lord Kren's angry face, but was surprised the aging Sith Lord wasn't angrier than he was.

"I suspected as much. That's why Malice is there. Regardless. We must set our plan into motion immediately. I want you to notify everyone, and I mean everyone. Send Darth Decimus and the other apprentices at once. They need to make sure these thieves don't get away. We must steal the shard from them to complete our set. I will take care of the distraction so we can occupy Sorhaul and Ves. Make sure our Section is ready to depart on my command. You have command of my flagship _Tenebris_ until I return."

"I understand. Looks like we'll be very busy these next few hours." Syntheon said, then left.

"Darth Raven, you know what to do. I'll see you on _Tenebris_." The captain of his guard saluted and marched out with the two men at his command. _This is where things get really tricky._ Lord Kren began packing all of his necessary items into a footlocker. If things go well, it would be a while before he returned to this place and time. _The power of the past will be mine to command._

 **16**

Darth Kilvaari got there just in time. He jump slashed at the armored creature twice his size just as Darth Malice was about to finish off his master. Darth Malice sensed his attack, and quickly swung his warhammer to meet Kilvaari. Darth Animosity grabbed him with the force and pulled him away from the attack and back onto the ground.

"So you killed the rancor is that it? Or maybe you ran away." Darth Malice's face plate receded to reveal his red face. He was a pure-blooded Sith. He spat on the ground, and his face plate dropped again.

"Mektar Kelborn never runs from a fight. You're as smart as a Rancor, so I'm pretty sure I can take you too." Darth Animosity took out two blaster pistols and then hovered four more above and behind him. They slipped out of their holsters easily enough and powered up.

Kilvaari was thinking about how to get his master to safety. He didn't like that Malice was still within striking distance. He had already begun walking back to the pure-blooded Sith. _Master Animosity intends to attack him long distance since the warhammer is too big, clumsy and slow to deflect bullets easily. Even if Malice is fast with it, it's still not a weapon made for close range deflections, or much of anything defensive really. Smart move Mek. I just need to figure a way around him to reach Master Ryl._

A voice chimed into Mektar's ears. "Hey, this is Darien! Can you guys hear me? Anyone?"

"What do you want you bloody fool, I'm busy. Call back later." Mek opened fire with his six pistols at once, and Malice deactivated his warhammer. He sprinted to the right of them, and the large metal staff collapsed into the size of Kilvaari's lightsaber. Then he put it on his leg and force jumped to a high up balcony. Mek wondered if he was fleeing, or getting the high ground to continue the fight. Kilvaari was already at his master's side and trying to inject a shot of bacta into the Twi'lek's neck.

"Ah, I was really hoping _you_ wouldn't be the one to answer." The hacker sighed audibly as if he wanted to be somewhere else. "Your ship is toast. Sorry pal. But I really opened up communications to let you guys know a decent sized transport is on it's way. It was just detected at the edge of the system. I think-"

"MY SHIP WAS WHAT?" Animosity yelled. Inside of his helmet, Malice nor Kilvaari could tell he was in the middle of a conversation. "What do you mean destroyed? How? Isn't that we left you and your robot boyfriend for? Aghhhrrgrrrr." Mek's anger turned into inaudible groans. Then he took a deep breath and shot a grappling hook up to the ledge Malice was at. "So my spare armor is gone? My extra weapons? My astromech R1L1? Fierfek, this sucks." He reached the ledge and all six of his pistols immediately scanned the area, prepared to shoot in any direction should Malice jump out. But all that was there was a door.

"I'm not sure about your other stuff, but your astromech is okay. He helped us fend off the attackers that got past you guys and found us. And he's my brother not my boyfriend you thick headed merc. Just go do whatever you came for and quick. Goodbye!" Then he hung up.

 **17**

They carried him to the swoop bikes. Right before they were going to set him down on the back of one, Darth Ryl regained consciousness and shoved Kilvaari away. "I'm getting shotgun," he said weakly. "Did you get the-?"

But Mek already held it out for them and smiled. His helmet was off, and hanging from his weapon belt. They got back onto the swoop bikes and rode back to the ships. On the way Darth Ryl asked what happened to Malice. Animosity told him that Malice fled, and he wasn't about to try to pursue him in a small hallway. As they stopped at the ships, Darth Ryl said "I'm happy you two are still alive. You guys are my favorite boot kissers."

"Don't worry, I have plenty of time to kill you in the future," Darth Animosity said before shaking his head sadly at the debris of his ship. Darien and Zero were sifting through the wreckage, and Animosity saw they had piled up a few things that looked salvageable. Mostly it was ship parts, but there was also a long vibroblade and a grenade belt.

"What took you so long, di'kut," the astromech droid named R1L1 said to his own master, with his master's own recorded voice.

"Well that's pretty interesting," Kilvaari commented. "Can we fit both of the swoop bikes in _Ryloth Spear_ Master?"

"There's no time! The enemies are coming here soon. Zero get the rest of this into their ship," Darien said gesturing to the pile of parts.

"We can only fit one and all of us. We need to get somewhere safe so I can activate these shards. Would you two care to stay?" Ryl asked.

Zero and Darien looked at each other. After a quick moment, Zero spoke. "The first thing the enemy will do is sweep this area. We will not survive long on our own here. We will come with you, and get dropped off somewhere _safe_ at your nearest convenience."

And then that's when a transport three times the size of _Ryloth Spear_ broke the atmosphere. It only took two minutes before it started descending towards their makeshift landing pad. Of course Darth Animosity's flaming ruin of a ship and its smoke trail didn't do much for discretion.

 **18**

Darth Kilvaari and Darien Garr were piloting their small ship out of the atmosphere. Animosity and Zero were staring at each other in the hold. R1L1 was in sleep mode near the restroom. Darth Ryl was in the small storage room, holding the three Force Shards. He could feel a primordial power oozing from each of the shards. He slowly put them together, and was shocked by a jab of electricity. Now the entire Force Medallion was glowing a bright blue color.

"Hey so uh, where are we going exactly?" asked Darien.

"Utapau. My Master owns that planet by rights. We'll have to drop you off there and then activate the portal on the planet." Kilvaari clicked a few buttons, then turned on the speaker system. "Hello this is your pilot speaking, strap in. We'll be entering hyperspace soon. Destination: Utapau. Thanks for flying with Zeke Nekor." Sometimes he felt weird saying his real name out loud, even when he was only joking.

After the ship was steadied in hyperspace, Darth Ryl walked into the already cramped cockpit. "How sure are we that those were Lord Kren's men back there?" His hands were on the backs of both of the seats to support himself. He still wasn't a hundred percent after fighting Darth Malice.

"The ship's ID tag belonged to a man named Darth Decimus." Darien said, looking at the information his suit had recorded.

"Damn it," Darth Ryl said. "That means even my planet may not be safe."

"Do you even know how to use those shards now that they're all together?" Darth Animosity asked his rival from behind him.

Darth Ryl looked uneasy. "It has been said it requires the power of three force users to unlock or interact with it."

"We'll be ready." The Nautolan said. "Should we send word ahead of our arrival?"

"I had hoped we could to buy us more time but…"

"But, the guy I hacked may have already turned your own men against you if he knows you're behind everything. Am I right?" Darien said.

"Malice can tell him easily enough," Darth Ryl said in a flush of shame and anger. "I should have killed him or died trying." He suddenly felt very weak, and was angry that he hadn't recuperated yet.

"Master, you were just distracted. I'm sure you'll eliminate him next time!" Darth Kilvaari was smiling.

 _If there is a next time_ , Ryl thought but instead he said, "We're here." _Ryloth Spear_ came out of hyperspace facing Utapau. But none of them were prepared for five capital ships and dozens of smaller ships that still outsized them to be waiting for them.

"Osik," Darth Animosity cursed.

 **19**

"I knew it. We've caught them. Send Ion fighters to disable their ship immediately. At least make sure that hyperdrive is offline at once! NOW!" Lord Kren yelled. He had assembled every single Sith completely loyal to him and his plan. Of course there were more that he was in charge of than this meager twenty-one-thousand, but most were ordinary troops. He couldn't move a force bigger than this without arousing suspicion from Lord Sorhaul the Wise and Lord Ves the Cruel.

Darth Syntheon stood right by Lord Kren and his most trusted man Darth Raven. Behind them was Darth Terminus, Syntheon's only apprentice. She was a fierce Sith Marauder almost as cold and violent as the one who trained her.

"My lord! Darth Decimus has arrived behind the target. We'll be able to ensnare them for sure with this formation," reported Admiral Motley of the ship. He was the highest ranking naval officer in the entire fleet, although he wasn't a force user.

"Excellent. Have the Sith on Utapau pledged their allegiance to me and me alone?" Kren asked with a wicked smile on his face.

"Yes mi'lord. They said when they saw our magnificent fleet they were convinced that Darth Ryl and his subordinates were traitors. They are ours to command."

 _All is going well. Project Quasar will happen tonight and one of my least favorite Sith will be dead. You were always a stupid apprentice Darth Ryl. You never deserved the rank of 'Master', and now you will finally pay for all of your insolence._

 **20**

"Fighters incoming!" Darth Kilvaari yelled. "Defense turrets waiting for targets to get in range." He was focusing so much on the ship's systems, that Darien had to be a co-pilot.

"Can you even fly this thing, hacker boy?" Darth Animosity said.

"I'm a fast learner!" Darien shouted back.

The charging fighters began shooting blue streaks of ionized energy meant to disable their shields and possibly the entire ship's systems with enough impacts. "Can your droid help you fly?" Darth Ryl asked. Darien shrugged and said he probably could. "Then you two need to come with me. We need to open the dimensional rift right away, before we're captured and killed. It's our only hope."

"Hey! I don't wanna go through no portal, rift, or anything. I didn't sign up to fly through space and go through time. Hell no. I-I-"

"You see the situation we're in. I'm sure Lord Kren would _love_ to thank you for hacking him. I'm sure he'll understand when we're captured." Darth Ryl scoffed. "Just keep us free of those ion shots, and fly straight into the portal when you see it. Understand, kid?"

Darien turned back to say something, but he realized the Twi'lek had a hand on his lightsaber. His stare was the most intense thing he had ever seen. He saw ice old flames in Darth Ryl's eyes. "I understand. Zero, get up here!" he called.

Darth Ryl, Darth Kilvaari, and Darth Animosity went into the passenger compartment, and they all put their hands on the Force Medallion. It began glowing blue again, but also red. Then the two colors swirled like the water in a toilet bowl. As they mixed, the reddish blue glow grew until it exploded knocking all three of them against the close walls of the compartment. A figure appeared from the smoke. It was cloaked in black but with red and blue tints. Kilvaari and Animosity drew their weapons, but Ryl only spoke to the creature that hovered above the Medallion without any feet. It had a mask that covered a face that didn't seem to exist.

"Are you a force ghost?" Darth Ryl asked it.

The figure turned it's hooded face to look at him. "I suppose I am. I also am not. I am a Guardian of the Force. You have put together one of the rarest objects in the universe," the deep voice boomed.

"How do we manipulate time, honorable Force Guardian."

"You can't," it said simply.

"What do you mean?" Ryl said through his teeth, being careful not to let his anger show.

"Only I can. Do you wish to travel young ones? I sense that you do. Nothing escapes me."

"Yes," Darth Ryl said, glancing at his rival and apprentice to measure their faces. "I wish to go back in time sixteen years. I wish it very dearly. I'll do anything you want." Darth Ryl bowed. Darth Kilvaari was thinking deeply about the significance of the number sixteen.

"I see," said the mysterious Force Guardian. "And so will you." The Force Guardian lifted his hands up and blue force energy swirled in one palm, and red in the other. Then he spun around and shoved his hands forward causing the energy to disperse. "Go through. You may collect my shards again if you wish to summon me once more. You must go to Korriban and seek out the Temple of Time if you hope to find my Force Shards again. Each time they are used they are separated and dispersed. May the force be with you," and then the Guardian faded away with a mysterious cackle of laughter.

Then they heard Darien say, "Holy mother of Taris." The three Sith all squeezed into the cockpit of the ship. They were mostly speechless as they observed a huge portal rip it's way into the vacuum of space. It kept expanding more and more. It's electrifying energy shooting out lightning bolts larger than any Darien had ever seen. "Are you… sure about this?" Darien asked.

"We'll be in contact with the anomaly in one minute thirty seconds," Zero said matter-of-factly.

"Full speed ahead. I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life. This is what I want. I just need to send a message real quick before we're through." Darth Ryl was clutching the back of Darien's chair very tightly. The enemy was eclipsed by the portal, but fighters and a transport were still behind them.

"Well, here we go then. Just to be safe, I would suggest that everyone strap in tight. Who knows what will happen once we go through that… thing."

 **21**

Lord Paxar Kren stared at the rapidly expanding dimensional portal opened up before his fleet. Even Darth Syntheon looked quite impressed. "Scans?" Kren asked.

"They show readings off the charts. We've never collected data like this before, but we don't know how safe it is. I've ordered footage from one of the fighter captains and it seems that the portal looks the same on both sides, but there's still a lot of risks," reported Admiral Motley.

"If we go through on this side, we may not arrive in the same place or time as the thieves, presuming we make it out at all," Darth Syntheon commented. His synthetic brain was storing as much information about the portals as he could. He had a wireless connection directly to Kren's flagship _Tenebris_. He either didn't notice, or didn't care.

Lord Kren pulled on the facial hair on his chin. After a few seconds he finally said, "Order all of our ships through. Immediately." _The portal looks just like the ancient scribes and holocrons described. It's all real. All of it._

"Sir! The fighters have reported the traitor ship _Ryloth Spear_ has entered the portal, and they want to know whether to pursue or return to their hangars," an ensign at a console reported. The bridge of _Tenebris_ could fit the traitor ship inside of it and then some. There were just under forty crew members at consoles, stations, and communication devices.

"Order them through. All of them. Let's enter that portal before it closes."

And so, the squadron of fighters were the first ones in the portal to follow _Ryloth Spear_. Then came Darth Decimus and his transport. Aboard that ship was also Darth Malice who they picked up from the outpost in the Yavin System. By the time the five capital ships were within range, the portal began closing. The capital ships _Tenebris_ and _Apparatus_ went first, side by side. Then _Dathomir's Fist_ and _The Hammer of the Sith._ Finally, _Annihilator_ came in last. Several smaller shuttles, transports, and cargo ships followed beside the large capital ships.

However, once the portal reached a certain size after shrinking, it completely snapped shut, cutting off the back end of _Annihilator._ The back of the ship drifted away from the portal where all of the others had entered, and sentient beings spilled out from the open hulls, some getting ripped out by the vacuum of space. After a few moments, High Lord Kren's entire fleet was gone, save for the piece of _Annihilator_ that floated several thousand kilometers away from Utapau's surface. It was as if the massive portal hadn't even existed. Meanwhile, the journey through time had already begun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Utapau**

 **1**

It was a ten hour journey, Zero proudly measured it himself. He told them so as they were torn from the portal and ripped back into real-time. The Utapau system looked pretty much the same, or so Darth Ryl thought.

"You're sure they followed us in?" He asked Darien.

"Right now the only thing I'm sure of is that the trip took a huge toll on this ship. It'll only be good for one more jump in hyperspace before needing some serious repairs," he replied.

 _If this really is sixteen years ago, then Utapau won't be under my control. But still, it's the best choice for refueling and repairs._ "Land on this planet. We'll repair _Ryloth Spear_ then see about dropping you and your droid off." Darth Ryl watched as the ship turned towards Utapau, activated it's repulsors and shot out towards the planet with a burst of speed.

" _Brother_ ," Darien corrected, patting Zero on the back as he did so. _Sixteen years in the past huh? Maybe there is something I can do in this time._

"I don't know why you Sith insist on calling me such. Do I look anything like that deactivated astromech in the back?" Zero asked.

Darth Animosity returned after throwing up in the restroom just in time to chime in. "That's because you're not an astromech, stupid."

Before anyone could add anything else to the conversation, _Ryloth Spear_ 's sensors starting going off. Darien had flagged the enemy fighters prior to entering the wormhole, and now the sensors could only mean the wormhole was re-opening behind them again.

In the same spot that _Ryloth Spear_ had appeared, so did the same wormhole. The first thing it spat out was a one man fighter that was broken into two pieces. It tumbled out and then exploded. Then two fighters came out and their velocity was too great so one was literally ripped apart, and the shrapnel from the first collided with the second, destroying it instantly. The remaining fighters made it out okay, swiftly dodging the floating wrecks of their squadron leader and squadmates.

It didn't take long for the remaining fighters to hone in on _Ryloth Spear_ 's signal. They immediately went after them, soon followed by the large transport craft.

"Six fighters incoming, t-minus forty seconds until they have weapons lock. Oh, and the transport from Yavin is here too," Darien said.

"It will be most exciting to see how good of a pilot you have become sir," Darth Kilvaari said.

"What? I just? Ugh. Nevermind. Thanks Darth.. Um, Kill something? I don't know, shut up, lemme focus." That was when the first ion shots flew past the ship.

"I'll return fire," Zero said.

"I hate flying but I still miss my ship," Animosity said, frowning.

"It's a good thing that wormhole must have screwed with their smaller ships even worse than ours, their target systems are complete bantha poo right now, and they can't even catch us." Darien said smiling, then: "So where should I land this thing?"

Darth Ryl took out a datapad connected to his ship and began typing coordinates into it. "The planet is made of sinkholes, so I'm sending us to the biggest one with the closest thing Utapau has to a capital city."

"Sinkholes? Wow this planet sounds fun," Darien commented.

"I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not computer boy, but if you like it so much we'd be more than happy to drop you in a different sinkhole somewhere along the way. We've got big boy work to do," Darth Animosity said.

"I actually don't know either. Never been off Taris before. Never been shot at _this much_ either before I met you guys."

Then an ion shot impacted and most of the ship's systems shut down. The cockpit went dark for a moment, and then a back up generator restored power to the crucial systems. "See what happens when you start whining?" Animosity said.

"Enough! Everyone strap in. They're trying to disable us before we begin to get pulled into Utapau's gravity. We need to breach the atmosphere and prepare for a possible rough landing. Full speed ahead." Everyone listened, and did as they were told, although Animosity and Darien were muttering and mumbling incoherently.

The pursuing ships entered a formation of six and all fired their ion shots simultaneously. Darien spun the _Ryloth Spear_ and danced around all of the ionized blue lasers, except the one that clipped the engine. When the lights shut off a second time, Darth Ryl and Darth Kilvaari understood that meant that the ship was going to crash.

 _Ryloth Spear_ was a dagger in the atmosphere, cutting through the thin air of Utapau. Darien managed to lift the ship's nose up, so when it collided with the surface it could do so as safely as possible.

Dust flew up in a trail behind the ship, and the bottom of the ship's nose burst into flames. One of the wings had broken off several meters behind them. Darth Ryl took a deep breath. "We need to get down to that sinkhole I told you about. There should be an underground entrance somewhere, there always is. Take everything. I'm sorry to say, but this may be the last we'll ever be seeing of _Ryloth Spear_." Darth Ryl wasted no time gathering all of his possessions.

"That's two ships you owe us, hacker," Animosity said, with a snarl. Then he donned his Mandalorian armor and did his usual weapons check.

"Scans have picked up a passageway which might lead to the nearest sinkhole sir," Zero offered. "There's also a hyperwind storm seven kilometers out."

"Hyperwind storm?" Darien asked.

"Trust me, you don't wanna know. Let's just say the population of Pau'ans and Utai don't live underground and in the sinkholes for nothing. Let's get moving," the Twi'lek commanded. "You served me well. Thanks for keeping me alive," Darth Ryl said to his ship as they prepared to leave it behind. Darth Kilvaari bowed to honor the ship that has been by his master's side longer than he had, and then they set off into the wasteland's surface.

 **2**

Darth Decimus landed the dropship forty meters away from _Ryloth Spear_. The fighters that were escorting him, circled his slower ship like flies, and then landed in a protective ring around his dropship.

"Sire," Darth Gauntlet said, saluting his superior. Darth Decimus looked at the newest recruit to his team of apprentices to High Lord Kren and nodded. "There is a strong storm coming this way. It could be deadly to the ships. I also have their life signs, so we know which direction they went."

"Then we will pursue them on the skiff we brought, and you will take this dropship and two of the fighters as escort to return to orbit and await the fleet." Darth Decimus wondered what would happen if Lord Kren's fleet didn't make it through. That would make him the new Lord of the Sith. But he didn't know what time he was in, or what he could even do with so few men under his command. _If the storm proves to be a problem, I'll simply commandeer one of these one man fighters._

Darth Decimus, the highest ranking apprentice of the High Sith Lord Kren, stood at two meters tall, with a shaved bald head and thick layers of muscle. He graduated at the top of his class at the Sith Temple. He wore a simple black cloak over a medium layer of blaster resistant armor. On the armor was his master's sigil, the exploding planet.

As he walked off of the drop ship, he was flanked by two of Lord Kren's other elite apprentices. On his left was Darth Sniper, a human female with long beautiful dark hair, and armor-less tights for freedom of movement. On Decimus' left side, was Darth Eon, who wore the simple, but protective garb of a Sith Assassin. Unloading the Skiff from the dropship were a handful of other Sith Acolytes and apprentices. Decimus didn't bother learning most of their names until they had proved themselves. Many didn't live long enough to pique his interest anyway.

The pilots were lined up in an orderly row in front of his dropship, standing at attention. Darth Decimus and his two compatriots walked up to them. "Who is in charge of you lot?" He asked menacingly.

"I am sir. The Squad Captain's ship was torn to shreds in the wormhole. We think he was going too fast," the pilot answered.

"And the six of you decided to shoot down our prey?"

Alarm crept onto the pilot's face, but he did his best to keep it from interfering with his voice. "Yes sir. We used disabling weapons only. We had hoped-"

"To force our enemies to crash land on the surface?"

"No sir, not exactly. We-"

"-Failed," Darth Decimus finished for him. "If they had a pilot as worthless as your Captain, their ship might have blown up on impact. We need at least one of them alive. Go search the ship," Decimus ordered the pilots, but he wasted no time in gripping the second in command's neck with the force and lifting him up telekinetically. "I'm sorry my lord," the pilot struggled to say. One of the other pilots turned around just in time to see Decimus nod at the girl at his side. She threw her lightsaber like a spear, and it impaled the man. His body dropped at the same time the lightsaber returned to the woman.

"Two of you will escort my drop ship back to orbit," he called after the pilots searching the wreck. "The other three can join us on the skiff."

"We're going hunting," Darth Eon said through his mask's vocoder.

The dropship and two fighters lifted up, and took off. The remaining Sith boarded the floating sand skiff, save for Darth Decimus, who was on his personal swoop bike. "The Twi'lek is mine. I don't care what you do with the rest of them," he called out. Ruling and fighting weren't very different, he had decided. The strongest one is still the best suited no matter what.

 **3**

"So how does it feel to be responsible for the destruction of two ships? I think we oughtta deduct that from your pay kid," Darth Animosity said.

"You're as worthless as you are stupid," Darth Animosity's astromech droid added in its master's voice, presumably speaking to Darien. There didn't seem to be anything in sight for kilometers on end. They had been walking all night and were utterly exhausted. On the edge of the horizon, a huge storm was whipping up sand and gravel. It looked like an angry cloud was attacking the planet.

"Why didn't you just hack your dumb droid to have it's own vocoder, or any other preselected voice. Why can it only speak with your voice? It's creepy." Darien asked.

"Says the person who's droid thinks it is both human, and your blood relative. Interesting. I never told R1L1 to start recording my speech or phrases. He took it upon himself and stores them in his databanks." Out of everyone, muscular Darth Animosity was lugging the most equipment and gear on a huge backpack that was big enough to fit his astromech in it. Despite that, R1L1 was dragging a cart with extra food and gear as well.

"Enough bickering you two. You're making me want to kill you both," Darth Ryl spat. "Kilvaari, pass me the water."

Smiling as usual, Darth Kilvaari handed his Master the huge canteen they were sharing. "I must say Master, I never did like the weather on this planet. But it seems to have gotten worse, although I admit I haven't spent much time on the surface back in the future."

Darth Ryl took a large sip of the water and wished it were wine. "No, you're right. It has gotten worse." He thought about it as they walked. "Strange," he commented. _We better find this cavern entrance soon. I have no doubt we're being followed by now._

It was the peak afternoon and it was so hot and arid they had to take a break. Darien was utterly exhausted, and even the Sith and their force enhanced stamina were tiring. They ate while they rested. "Zero, you're being even more quiet than usual. What's wrong?" Darien asked.

"I'm trying to figure out if the thing following us is hostile or not."

"What thing? Like a creature?" Darien asked. He stood up and began to look around, but he was yanked back down on his butt with the force.

"Are you a fool? Don't let them know we're on to them," Darth Animosity said. "I thought I sensed some enemies nearby, but the droid confirmed it. They'll either attack as we pack up, or tonight." He smiled deviously, as if he couldn't wait.

Darth Ryl fidgeted uncomfortably. _Damn, I had no idea. Am I tired or distracted? How pitiful it would be to come this far, and literally travel through space and time just to get killed on the planet that I eventually rule over. Wait, that's it. I know some of the locals here. That might help us._ "You're as sharp as ever Kelborn. Your perception skills are legendary, even among us Sith."

Mektar Kelborn nodded. "Even still, you have bested me more than I you, my old friend. One day your death will be my doing. That's why I've come to see you safely through everything else in the meantime." Darth Animosity took out a pack of death sticks, lit one, and then inhaled a puff.

"Hey uh, can I, um. Maybe have one. I'll toss you some creds," Darien Garr said meekly.

Darth Animosity glared at him. "Fifty for one."

"Deal."

"Would you like one for him?" Animosity mocked, as he gestured to Zero.

Zero replied nonetheless, "No thanks, they aren't very good for my lungs."

Darth Animosity looked at him stupidly. "I'm sure it isn't," he scoffed. "You very well might be the only droid I've ever met that's actually crazy. I guess you could say you're nuts!"

Then a laser hit a rock formation near them and they all jumped up. Animosity's helmet was already on, Ryl's double bladed lightsaber was out, and Zero's heavy blaster rifle was ready to return fire. "It's a sand skiff!" Darth Kilvaari called out, taking his own weapon out.

"R1L1, Darien, grab as much of our stuff as you can and make a break for the coordinates. We'll meet you there," Ryl commanded. Darien looked like he wanted to argue, but then another red laser came barrelling towards them. Kilvaari deflected it, but only barely. The lasers were stronger and bigger than regular bolts. The skiff was approaching rapidly, and it was becoming a bigger target while it's gunner's shots also came closer and closer to them.

"There's only eight, but they're only pitiful peons. Kilvaari, use the force to grab the rest of our stuff and escort Darien."

"But Master, you're tired and haven't slept!"

"If I wanted to be babied, I would seek out who my mother was. Now GO!" This time the Nautolan did as he was bid. The skiff continued to open fire. Either Zero or Animosity was able to pull off a headshot on one of the skiff's gunners. About five lightsabers were ignited and they got in defensive stances. The skiff charged their former campsite and both sides lit each other up and deflected bolts back at one another. Three of the Sith flipped off of the mobile transport, but Ryl flipped onto their transport, taking their place. He beheaded a gunner, and then impaled a Sith Acolyte before they could even react. The last living gunner foolishly took out a knife and charged Ryl while he was dueling another apprentice. Darth Ryl did a reverse stab and impaled the Sith pilot without even looking, then spun his blade to block the apprentice's strike and sever his arm too.

A masked Sith Apprentice with a double-bladed lightsaber rushed Zero, who extended his arm blade to catch the saber before it could behead him. Meanwhile the girl in the group stood ten meters away from Animosity but she attacked him with her lightsaber telekinetically, swinging from all sides and angles so he could only defend himself with the darksaber.

"Don't think we didn't study our opponents. I'm the perfect counter to you Master Animosity, the Sith Warrior who some say might be as famous as Darth Malice one day. With my force sniping ability, I can wield my saber as good as any duelist without even touching it," the girl laughed. "Without concentration you can't use your pistols. I will ascend to the rank of Sith Marauder after killing the likes of you. One day I will be Lord Sniper," she laughed once more. The third Sith ran after Darien, R1L1, and Darth Kilvaari.

"One day you'll be dead," Animosity replied while blocking her telekinetic slashes.

Darth Ryl hadn't piloted a sand skiff before. If he had grown up on Ryloth, or Tatooine it would have been common knowledge, but he had been abducted to be a Jedi. Sure they taught you how to pilot many ships, but Ryl often didn't pay attention. Now he wished he had. He finally got in control of skiff, and kicked the corpses off it. Then he realized he could hear the Hyperwind storm brewing nearby. He turned to see that he could actually see the particles of Utapau as they were ripped from the surface. It wouldn't be easy to outrun the storm on foot in their tired state.

Darth Ryl swung the skiff around so that the dark haired girl was in his path. She side flipped over the skiff, _not that you could really kill someone by running them over with a hovering vehicle anyway,_ Ryl thought. He was happy he didn't need to call out to Animosity. He had already grabbed the skiff's railing by the mounted turret and climbed in. He manned the gun and opened fire on them. "Spin us so I can get a good shot!" He called, but Darth Ryl only swooped up to where Zero stood.

"Leave them to the storm," Ryl said. And then Darth Animosity cursed in Mandalorian when he saw how close it had gotten during their fight. Animosity put a well placed shot in the shoulder blades of the Sith Zero was fighting, and then Zero climbed in the same way Animosity had. "No small feat surviving a duel with a full blown Sith Apprentice, Zero."

"You have my thanks, but I would have had him if you guys hadn't intervened. I have learned from the best sword duelists on Taris."

Darth Ryl chuckled when he thought about the idea of a droid getting trained by a human, when some droids were literally created just to train sentient beings how to fight or duel. He might need to test the droid himself one day. But Darth Ryl's humor was drained from him when he saw two red lightsaber's clashing, and another one moving towards Darien rapidly. Darien Garr opened fire on the Sith Apprentice, but the attacker just deflected into the sand.

"DARIEN!" Zero called out, in a nauseatingly human sounding voice. And then the Sith apprentice was within striking range of the hacker. Darth Ryl sped the skiff as fast as he could, but he knew it would be too late.

 **4**

Darth Kilvaari was getting pushed back by Lord Kren's top apprentice, Darth Decimus, when he heard the droid Zero yell as loud as he could. Darth Animosity's astromech droid fired a flare ten meters into the sky, and then it exploded, sending a blinding white light out in all directions. Kilvaari had his back facing a rock, so the flash only dazed him for a second. But everyone else, including Darth Ryl and his skiff were blinded.

Darth Kilvaari swung his lightsaber in a buzzing flurry, and amazingly Decimus blocked three slashes in a row, but the fourth cut right through the meat in his leg, and he dropped to one knee. Darth Kilvaari put all of his strength in his legs, and fired out the energy below him in a massive force jump. He landed right behind the other sith apprentice who was swinging his blade wildly trying to kill the hacker, who was on the ground rubbing his eyes and trying to crawl away. When his sight had returned, Kilvaari's blade was already plunged into his chest.

"You pitiful weakling, you just got lucky. I will be your demise. Come fight me!" Decimus called out blindly. Nearly everyone's sight was returning, and Zero was helping Darien unto the sand skiff. Darth Animosity fired the skiff's turret at Decimus, but he blocked the shots with ease.

"Leave him, the storm will be upon us any moment," Zero said. The Sith team used the force to lift up all of the items they brought from the ship, and R1L1, and then they left Darth Decimus there, limping and cursing.

A kilometer away, they found the entrance to the cavern. They trekked deep enough down to be safe from any surface activity, and then set up another camp in the cavern that was deemed roomy enough. Most of the silent passage ways could only fit two or three of them walking side by side, but this area could have almost fit the lost _Ryloth Spear_. Darth Ryl ordered the droids to stand watch while they slept, but the adrenaline was still in their blood and sleep did not come easy.

"Thank you for saving my life," Darien said. "R1L1, Darth Kilvaari. That was a little closer than I would have liked."

"I am sorry little brother. You were too close together for me to get a shot," Zero said, with a hint of shame. He was standing behind the group, where the tunnels lead up. He had his blaster rifle in hand. R1L1 did not respond, so Darien assumed he didn't have any fitting responses to answer with. Kilvaari smiled, but his tired eyes answered well enough. Darien let him rest.

"R1L1, don't forget to map out these caves. I would not want to get lost and die in here. I would shame my people." Darth Animosity used a rag to wipe some of the blood and dirt off of his face. The droid gave a quiet beep in answer. "I wonder how much different the galaxy is right now. Sixteen years isn't a lot, but across the entire span of the universe a lot can happen. And what of us? Are there versions of ourselves in this timeline?" Darth Animosity let that sentiment hang there.

"Well, I'm sure we can connect to the holonet and find out when we get to a city or ship. And if there is another Darien Garr out there, I'm gonna get five year old me drunk and tell him how much his life is gonna suck." Darien looked at each of the people in his party. Zero Garr, his adopted android brother, standing guard with his trademark blaster rifle in his arms. R1L1, an astromech droid almost as peculiar, standing guard at the other end of the path. Or at least as much as an astromech could be considered a guard that is.

Then there was the Master and Apprentice. His most recent client, Darth Ryl, formerly known as Ulon Belamish. The blue-skinned Twi'lek even looked fearsome in his sleep. Darien wondered what he dreamt about, and why he had risked his life to go sixteen years into the past. His Apprentice, Darth Kilvaari, the Smiling Sith. Darien felt like he should like Kilvaari the best out of the group, especially since he saved his life, yet, something about him just felt… off. Finally, there was the Mandalorian Sith. Darien couldn't think of a meaner combination, and yet there was a kind of softness about him. He slept in his armor save for his helmet, which made Darien speculate as to whether he did so for battle-readiness, or perhaps because the armor was the only thing that made him feel safe. And then there was Darien himself.

 _Honestly, what am I doing here? I'm gonna die for five hundred thousand credits on a world I've never known, with people who fight to rule the galaxy? Is that my path? What would you think of me Zy?_ Darien Garr fell asleep thinking of his near death experience and his new, friends? Comrades? Partners? He couldn't think about it anymore with his tired mind. And so, he slept. They all did save the astromech droid.

 **5**

"My lord," the officer said. His sigil on his chest was the fiery sphere that marked him as one of Lord Kren's men. The sphere was modeled after the first planet Paxar Kren had destroyed and burnt until it was uninhabitable.

Lord Kren stood up from his private quarters. He looked at his two guards, and then the officer, whose rank above his sigil denoted him to be a Captain. "Yes Captain?" Kren said, still sleepy.

"We have finally exited the wormhole. I was told you wished to be awoken at once."

"At ease officer," Kren said. The officer relaxed slightly. "I'll be on the bridge in ten minutes. Make sure that either Darth Raven or Admiral Motley is there to brief me about everything of interest." Kren stretched his limbs, and wondered how long he had been asleep for. He never imagined they'd be travelling through time for so long. In the end, it still must have been shorter than most trips through hyperspace.

"Yes sir. I'll see to it at once." The Captain saluted once more, and marched off. Kren donned his Sith Battle Armor so he would look the part of a conqueror, and grabbed his lightsaber, although he hadn't needed to use it in several years. Not having his blade with him would still hinder his command over his men. As Kren left his solar, his door guards locked his quarters, and followed behind him. It was a five minute walk to the bridge of _Tenebris_ , but when he arrived, everyone of importance was waiting to brief him.

"My lord!" All of the bridge crew echoed at once, save for Darth Raven. The officers on deck that were standing gave a bow. The troops guarding the bridge saluted.

"Update me," he commanded.

"High Lord Kren, we have arrived at the same coordinates as we entered,"

Darth Raven began. "We've scanned the planet. We've found it interesting that they seem to be ruling themselves, with small local militias and no outside presence. A few small cities in sinkholes. We have also found-"

"I don't care about this worthless planet, update me on the fleet," Kren

interrupted."

Admiral Motley seized the opportunity instantly. "Well sire," the pilots we sent pursued the traitors onto the surface of the world Utapau. The survivors joined up with Darth Decimus, and your other apprentices. We've been in contact with one called 'Darth Gauntlet' that Decimus sent to update you when we arrived."

Darth Raven glared at Admiral Motley with white-hot hate. Admiral Motley sensed the stare despite his lack of force sensitivity, and turned to to meet it with a devious smile. _This one has grown bold,_ Darth Raven thought.

"Speaking of that, how long has it been since we entered the portal?" Kren asked. This time Raven was quick enough to answer.

"Eighteen standard hours. And the good Admiral should also mention the capital ship we lost. _Annihilator_ didn't make the portal in time. Darth Daephro is dead, along with almost all of his crew. Upon our arrival, all of the capital ships sent out scavenging teams to bring back anything useful from the pieces of the wreck that did make it into this time period."

"I expected worse," Lord Kren admitted. Truly he had not read anywhere of the ancient Sith bringing fleets or large capital ships into the wormhole, but he had figured if the portal was big enough, he'd be damned if he didn't try. "Okay. Since Syntheon has the most replaceable forces, order him to deploy his army on-world. We'll capture the traitors before we do anything else. The rest of us will assume blockade positions and send out fighters to scout the gaps." Lord Kren smiled. He had thousands of men at his command and a small, but powerful fleet. Kren was pulled from his internal plotting by a lesser ensign.

"SIR, we've connected to the Galactic Holonet, and I think some of this information may be of great interest." Admiral Motley nodded, and walked towards the man, with Darth Raven and Lord Kren joining him. The ensign was clearly nervous, but Lord Kren's mood changed drastically as the ensign rambled on about the time they were in and the state of galactic affairs.

 _How could this be…?_ Lord Paxar Kren thought, but it was reasons like what he had just learned that caused him to bring such a well trained and powerful fleet. "Raven, contact Decimus and tell him I want those traitors captured immediately. He'll be a true Sith Warrior once his task is completed." Darth Raven nodded. _So there's a galactic conflict going on right now, and the Sith are presumed to be extinct? Things are very interesting, very interesting indeed._

 **6**

They spent hours travelling through the underground passages. It was dark, cold and damp, the opposite of the surface. They had depleted the last of their food, and water was scarce. Darien dreamt of showering. Kilvaari's thoughts were of oceans. Animosity was thinking of the Sith Apprentice who he fought. She managed to cut him on the leg. Zero had offered to heal his wound with bacta, but Darth Animosity argued against it. "A true warrior, let's his fighting spirit heal himself. Only life threatening damage necessitates outside help," and so Zero let Darth Animosity tend to his own wounds in his own way.

"Are you sure those things will work?" Darth Ryl asked Zero.

"Of course! My remote sensors are ninety-nine point eight percent accurate. If we're being followed in these tunnels, we will know it. I've set it to scan humanoid lifeforms only," Zero declared confidently.

"I sense life up ahead," Darth Animosity said through his helmet's vocabulator.

"Yes," Darth Ryl said. "It makes sense that these caverns have been made or used by the local fauna. We just need to watch out for some of the more dangerous creatures. I only know of the Varactyl and Dactillions which are both harmless. I can't imagine anything on this rock being more deadly than Ryloth's native species." His head tails twitched, possibly to show how proud he was to be born on such a dangerous world.

The only things they could see were in front of them. Their only light source was a flashlight on Zero's blaster rifle, and the light on Darth Animosity's Mandalorian helmet. Darien made sure he wasn't the last one in the group, since behind them was utter darkness. Instead, R1L1 strolled peacefully at the rear.

Darth Animosity halted, and so did the rest of the group except for Darien, who clumsily walked into Darth Kilvaari's back. "Oops, sorry," he said, but Darth Ryl shushed him. Darth Animosity activated his darksaber. The black blade was completely invisible in the darkness. It could only be seen when Animosity's helmet faced it. The other two Sith activated their blades as well, and suddenly the whole tunnel was illuminated an evil red. The glow made each person appear to have red skin.

"There!" Darth Animosity yelled, and a flock of winged creatures descended and flew towards them. Darien had no clue that the tunnel had gotten that big in the darkness. He thought the ceiling was only a meter above his head like it was at the start, but now you couldn't even see the top with the flashlights.

Zero fired the first shot, hitting one of the winged creatures in the face. It screeched, but kept coming. Darth Animosity jumped and cut the creature in two. The rest of the flock began to swarm him, so Darien hesitated. Then one of the creatures picked him up with sharp talons. In that moment, all Darien could think of was how it had almost as many tongues as it did eyes. He saw it's sharp teeth and struggled to aim his clutched arm upwards for a shot. Darth Ryl backflipped and cut the creature's legs. Darien fell to his his knees, then rolled on his back and opened fire another creature that was barrelling towards him. After three quick shots it fell unto him, singed and dead. The smell was horrific.

By the time Darien lifted the corpse off of him, the battle was done. The smell was even worse. The entire cave stunk of scorched meat. Darth Ryl was the only one with his weapon still out. He held it behind him casually. "Well?" he asked. Then Darien realized Darth Animosity was poking at one of the dead cave dwellers.

"We should be able to eat it, if we have to," he finally declared. He cut off both of it's wings, and then it's tail. "This should be sufficient just in case we don't reach that sinkhole soon." He grabbed the remaining parts of the creature, and stuffed it into a pack.

"Um. I am not eating that." Darien said, matter-of-factly. "Nooo way. No how. I'll eat my death sticks before I put a fork in that thing." He was brushing the dirt off of his knees and back, when Darth Ryl responded.

"Aw, the rich little Taris boy never had to kill his own food?" he scoffed. "City folk. You can't hack your way into a steak. So either you eat that thing, or we let the next one eat you." He spun his saber in a whirling arc around his body, and then deactivated it. "Let's keep moving."

They kept moving, leaving behind a big pile of mostly untouched corpses. As they walked, Darth Kilvaari whispered to Darien. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll reach the city soon." Darien couldn't help but smile back at the Nautolan. "If not, I'm sure we'll come across some edible bugs along the way."

 _Suddenly, that winged creature isn't sounding so bad,_ Darien thought. He hoped they wouldn't need to spend another night in the caverns. The darkness was starting to get to him.

Later that night, they came to a stop in another defensible spot. They unpacked their equipment, set up a perimeter, started a small fire, and then they shared the charred remains of the creature they killed that morning. "The strong survive, the weak die. That's the way of the universe," Darth Animosity had said. Darien Garr couldn't offer much to argue that point, so he ate quietly. He ate a lot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Nap'aun Unta**

 **1**

"Halt!" The guard commanded in Galactic Basic. They had came upon a scouting party of native Pau'ans. The natives had offered to bring them back to the city with them. They kept to themselves, but spoke Basic well enough. After following their party for a short time, they came upon the light at the end of the tunnel. The guards in the sentry booth stopped them there though.

"Worst comes to worst, you can speak to them in their own language, right Master?" Darth Kilvaari asked. Darth Ryl nodded. The scouts and the sentries finally finished conversing, so they waved them in. Darth Ryl did not fail to notice that the two sentries were holding Sith-Issue blaster rifles. _How would they have those if I didn't conquer this planet yet?_

As they left the darkness of the cave behind them, the brightness blinded them. This sinkhole was smaller than the one Darth Ryl had known, but it was still huge. Instead of a circle of platforms and buildings along the edges of the sinkhole, this area had a city built directly into the center of it. There were metal platforms holding the city in place that doubled as bridges. Down below there was greenish blue water that was being fed by waterfalls all around the sinkhole. The bridges were in the only locations that the waterfalls weren't dumping water.

"My friend, my brother owns an Inn if you need a place to stay. There's also a small spaceport at the top layer of the city. We wish you the best of luck, and for your safety please do well to avoid these caverns again." The tall white skinned creature was much nicer than he had looked, Kilvaari thought.

"You have my thanks," Darth Ryl said, and handed him five hundred credits.

"Welcome to Nap'aun Unta," the scout said, before taking the credits and heading back to his comrades.

"Wow, will you look at this city. I didn't think this planet could be beautiful. The climate down here is a lot nicer too." Darien said. The group walked down the bridge slowly taking in the sights. The multi-layered city seemed much larger than it really was. Zero estimated its population to be a little smaller than a million.

While the two brothers were chatting, Darth Animosity slowed down so that he was closer to Darth Ryl. "What's going on old friend? You don't look so hot." Darth Ryl had big bags under his eyes. He had reactivated his hologram disguise to hide his tattoos, but he still looked twenty years older than he was. "You been sleeping ok?"

"I'm fine. Worry about yourself," Darth Ryl said, and pushed past Darth Animosity to catch up with the others.

R1L1 caught up to him, so Animosity patted his droid on the head. "At least you like me," he said.

"Like you? I've always wanted to kill you," the droid replied with a recording of his own voice. Darth Animosity rolled his eyes.

They reached the end of the walkway and entered the city. The city was filled with Utai and Pau'uns, so their group stood out quite well. The locals were busy selling food, bartering for parts, taking pictures, or sitting down on rooftops. It didn't matter what they were doing, they all found time to glance at the mixed species group walking down the main street. It didn't matter what they did, everyone knew they were warriors. The gear they had, their outfits, and Darth Animosity's armor gave off that impression pretty much immediately. So the locals instinctually cleared a path for them as if they had a disease.

"Darth Kilvaari, you and R1L1 figure out where we can keep our equipment for now so we don't have to drag it any longer. Me and Darth Animosity will acquire a ship. The shorter time we spend in the city, the better."

"What about us?" Darien asked.

"I don't care. You've got your credits don't you? You're free to do whatever you want." Darth Ryl scanned the city with his eyes, and traced a path to the center where you could take elevators or lifts to the next level. Zero and Darien looked at each other.

"We're gonna stick with you guys until we're off world. I don't know how many Sith followed us, but we're as good as dead if they find us. They know who I am."

"I agree," Zero added. "We could still be of use."

Darth Ryl considered it for a moment. "Fine. Decide who you're going with right now."

Darien considered his options and knew which was the safer choice, so him and Zero accompanied R1L1 and Darth Kilvaari to find a temporary storage room for their load of equipment and gear. Unfortunately, the safest route, also had them carrying all of their possessions, so it wasn't exactly the easier choice.

"Well, we're all still alive, so we should be thankful for that much," Darth Kilvaari said, after a while. Darien had to pay fifty thousand credits to rent a small transport to carry all of their stuff. It hovered slowly behind them and followed the beacon that Darien put in his pocket.

"These aliens definitely ripped me off because I'm a human," he muttered. Even without the Mandalorian in full combat armor and blue-skinned Twi'lek they were still getting queer looks from the natives.

"Perhaps you just have the look of a wealthy tourist," Kilvaari offered with a smile. "Anyway, I'm sorry that my master has all of our credits at the moment."

"Maybe they know a sucker when they see one," Zero teased. Zero took out his blaster rifle immediately to point it at a Pau'un that didn't shy away from them.

"Please! Hear this one out," the white skinned humanoid begged. "I sense something special of you travellers."

Zero lowered his weapon. Darien was about to say something when Kilvaari stopped him. "Let's hear what the man has to say," he said and then smiled ear to ear.

"Thank you, thank you," the Pau'un said. "This one is called Wizyck Nor'err. I have great powers in the arts of seeing and feeling. You two have been chosen!" Then the native called Wizyck Nor'err gestured to Zero and R1L1 as well. "It seems you two have been chosen as much as the rest, this one thinks," he said chuckling. "Please follow to my stand for a great prize."

Darien rolled his eyes. "Listen Kil, can I call you that for short? Eh I'm gonna call you that anyway. So Kil I don't know if you're aware, but these people are called scam artists. There were plenty on Taris. You can't trust their kind. They just want credits. Let's keep moving before your master gets mad." He proceeded past the fortune teller who had already begun walking to his meager stand.

Darth Kilvaari smiled. "We've got time. Let's go," then he left to join Wizyck. Darien begrudgingly turned around to join him. After all, if anyone was the leader of their group, it would probably be Darth Kilvaari. Darien began cringing when he arrived at the stand filled with crystals, gems, and other stones.

Wizyck took out a chest big enough to fit a head in it, and said, "If this one can guess three things about you, this one will give you what's in this chest."

"And why would you do that?" Darien asked.

"Because you will pay a fee of five thousand credits for the seeing and the prize." Wizyck Nor'err smiled, displaying his sharp teeth.

"Okay seer, we accept."

"What?!" Darien squeaked. "How is that a good deal? I'm not giving him a single credit 'till we know what's in the chest."

"Something that is calling for you," Wizyck said. "It whispers your truths to me."

"Enough," Zero chimed in to his companions surprise. "Put your credits where your mouth is and show us that your words are as real as the chest you offer." The fortune teller closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"For the first truth, this one knows you have not been to our splendid city of Nap'aun Unta before, but you have been on this world before." Kilvaari pursed his lips and nodded.

"Oh come on, anyone could have guessed that. We clearly weren't born here." Darien protested. _Or born yesterday._

"This one will have his fee before more truths are revealed." Darth Kilvaari turned toward Darien and nudged him to give the seer credits. Darien snarled, but when Zero also nodded, he forfeited another five thousand credits after an eye roll.

"If you really can see the truth, then know that if you run with my creds I'll plant a blaster bolt in your back so fast you'll wish you were a custodian instead."

Wizyck counted the credits then smiled again, matching Kilvaari's smile. "This one does not fear you. This one knows you are here today because you lost someone close, and you lost your way. You are not unlike the one you follow, yet you do not think of things this way."

All of their eyes were on him, and Darien couldn't take it. Even Zero was staring at him waiting to hear what his response would be. He opened his mouth to speak, then the hacker turned around and left them. Zero looked at his brother, then back at the fortune teller. "Tell me what's in the chest," he said to the Sith and then left Kilvaari and R1L1 at the booth. _I wonder which one of us is the one 'he follows',_ Kilvaari thought.

"The truth isn't always what we want, is it? No need to answer, this one can feel that you already know that, young one." Wizyck tapped his sharp fingernails together. "Yes, you are more interesting, and yet your truth bores all."

"I'll hear it anyway," Darth Kilvaari said with a fading smile.

"You do all you do for love. A love you are forbidden to display. A secret love."

Darth Kilvaari stared at the fortune teller for a moment. When he finally spoke, he was beginning to loathe the smile on Wizyck's face. "Wizyck Nor'err is well gifted. You are guided by the force. It has made you fearless. I wonder if it means you can foresee your own demise." Darth Kilvaari patted his lightsaber under his cloak.

"Easy now, Wizyck Nor'err only does as he is asked. This one knows nothing of your force, lest that be the name the Gods have given my abilities. Can you handle the final revelation? Your prize awaits."

Darth Kilvaari was tempted to behead the force sensitive fortune teller, and take their credits back. He could swipe the mysterious chest while he was at it too. _I haven't had a dark side thought like this in a while… it'd just be so easy…_

"You and your friends are in the wrong place and the wrong time. You will go to a planet of cities, a planet of garbage, and a planet of trees. If you do not go to these places, you will be trapped here. Now take your prize and leave this one and don't turn back." The seer opened the chest before Kilvaari could respond, and then closed his booth down. Darth Kilvaari almost stopped him for fear that he was fleeing, but he was captivated by a silver and gold hue coming from the chest. Inside was a large egg, and it was shining.

 **2**

"You've got a problem. You know you do," Darth Animosity said. They were in a large elevator with several other locals. It was rising slowly, bringing them to the top floor where the landing pads and hangars were. The locals kept as much distance as they could in an elevator that would probably fit a full size bantha.

"If I already know, then why bother bringing it up?" Darth Ryl spat. Sometimes he thought he was the only one who wasn't intimidated by the muscular Mandalorian. Darth Ryl didn't fear anyone. Anyone except maybe himself...

Darth Animosity turned to face him. " _Because_ , you don't do anything about it. You're getting worse every time I see you. Lay off the stims. Stop boozing. Stop trying to kill yourself. Only I deserve the honor of ending your pitiful blue existence," he boasted.

"You wish." The glass doors of the elevator slid open. "Let's go." All of the other passengers waited for them to get off first before exiting. On the top floor you could actually see the sky. On most of the lower levels you can't see the sky or outside the sinkhole unless you go to the outer edges, but up here there were tons of ships. Some were being maintenanced, taken apart, or taking off.

"So where do we go from here, mighty Lord of Utapau?"

"That building over there looks to have the biggest hangar and landing pad. Perhaps it will be the best place to buy or rent a ship from."

Darth Animosity agreed, so they began walking down the street toward the massive building on the other side of the city. The only houses on this level seemingly belonged to the Pau'un elite. Many of the civilians here had bodyguards. That made them a little less worried about throwing scornful looks their way. Darth Ryl bought them some food to eat on the way, when a bold merchant stopped them.

"It is known that you are tourists to our great city Nap'aun Unta, yes?"

"Leave us. We don't want to buy anything," Darth Ryl said.

"Not even entry to our great museum of history?" Darth Ryl beckoned for Animosity and they began walking around the local. "Wait! Our databases and collections go back all the way to war between the Pau'uns and the Utai! The rule of the Sith Lord Darth Ryl and his successor Darth Trayorus. The Local uprising! Thousands of years of local and worldwide history for a cheap price! We even have holologs from Jedi and Republic forces that liberated our planet!"

At that, he turned and walked back to the Pau'un so quickly that the man thought he was going to get attacked. "What did you just say?" Darth Ryl asked with an intensity in his voice.

"I'm sorry if I have displeased you good traveler, I swear I'll let you be on your way!" The white skinned alien began whimpering at the look Darth Ryl gave him.

"Tell me more of this, Darth Ryl." The Pau'un looked uncertain and confused. "And then I will hear of this Darth Trayorus."

Darth Animosity crossed his arms and watched with great interest as the local calmed himself and gathered his words. "Well. Darth Ryl or Ryl the Conqueror as he was known locally, was the first person to unite all or most of Utapau under one common cause. Unfortunately it was done so with lots of bloodshed. Hundreds if not thousands were said to of perished as he crushed the local militias. He burned one city to the ground for treason. Darth Ryl was a Twi'lek like yourself. Most historians agree his skin was blue like yours too, but with tattoos. Some say he was green skinned or red. Does this please you, my friend?"

Darth Ryl looked at his associate, and knew Darth Animosity was grinning under his helmet. "What happened to this ruler?"

"That is where the stories clash. Since it was many millennia ago. One source says-"

"Wait," Darth Animosity interrupted. "You're saying he ruled thousands upon thousands of years ago? When was Utapau liberated?"

"Yes. The liberation was many millennia as well. The Sith are long gone now. Many in the galaxy have forgotten them. But Utapau does not. They say Darth Trayorus was even crueler than his predecessor. Thousands of indigenous people were exported off-world to become slaves. Trayorus was well known to have boasted of killing Ryl in a space battle that took place in the atmosphere. An entire village made their home out of the wreckage many years too, before the Sith destroyed that as well."

 _These people have no love of me, or the Sith. How could we have went forward in time? And thousands of years too? How is that possible?_ "But you are unsure?"

"Journals and logs have been recovered by many noble Pau'uns who claim Ryl abandoned the planet. Some of them have asserted that they personally worked with him during his reign." _The Sith are gone and forgotten. How could the Empire have lost to the Jedi?_ "I hope I have pleased you. For more intricate knowledge and visual and audio learning, please visit our Museum, two turns that way."

"You have my thanks," Darth Ryl said, but he suddenly felt ill. His knees felt weak. The whole city began spiralling around him.

"That was most interesting indeed," Darth Animosity said, and handed the local five hundred credits. "For your time. Now shoo." He grabbed Darth Ryl's elbow and helped him walk to a nearby bench. They sat down. "So I'm guessing this changes some things, huh?"

"It changes _everything_." Darth Ryl looked crushed. "I just trapped us all in a foreign time. Nothing about the galaxy is the same. We might be the only Sith left!" _And worse, my plans… my redemption…_

"It doesn't change _everything_ , we still need to get off-world before Kren wipes us from existence. C'mon, let's go." He stood up from the bench, and then ducked just in time to dodge a sniper shot. Darth Ryl jumped to his feet before Animosity could even tell him to duck.

"We've found you, you little worms," Darth Decimus called out from across the street. He was flanked by two other Sith apprentices.

 **3**

"Do you think they've acquired a ship yet?"

"I don't know Zero. I'm sure they'll be super impressed when they found out we got an egg though. Real impressed indeed. Probably jealous too!" Darien couldn't wait to get off this planet. He hated the dry heat. The locals creeped him out, and it was too...open. Taris was plagued with skyscrapers. Darien never would have guessed that he'd miss it.

"I was able to detect a heat signature in the egg. It is definitely going to be a living creature. Perhaps we will be able to sell it."

Darien shrugged. "Or eat it. Either way I can't wait to be off this rock." Darien took out his last death stick, and lit it. "You're bein' awfully quiet back there."

"That seer said we were at the 'wrong time'. Do you think he meant we aren't where we were supposed to go?" Darth Kilvaari was looking at the ceiling of the next upper level. There were small glass rooms and buildings clinging to the bottoms of the next level up. _These locals certainly make good use of the little space they have in the sink holes. But something about this planet does feel different than the last time I was here_. His head tails twitched.

"The blasted seer should have been called a talker instead 'cuz that's all he was good for. That and scamming you!" Darien muttered something considerably unkind on the topic to himself. "Look at these savages," he said while pointing to three Utai riding on the back of a large reptile with a bird-like head. Seconds later, there was a sinking noise as he stepped in droppings. "Blast it all, I hate animals."

Darth Kilvaari was smiling, but then he suddenly felt the mood shift in the force. On his homeworld of Glee Anselm his species was able to sense subtle vibrations through their head tails. It worked even better underwater, but on land his sensory skills were still proficient. Something was going to happen, and certain individuals had a vague idea. He sensed fear, confusion, and anxiety. He quickly looked around, but everyone near him was in a normal state. They were all acting casual.

"What's wrong?" Zero asked. He took out his blaster rifle. Some of the locals noticed. It caused some to blatantly stare while others decided they had things to do in the opposite direction.

Kilvaari pointed to a place that looked like a tavern or an inn of sorts. "Get in there with R1L1 now!" Zero apparently trusted Kilvaari's intuition enough, because he grabbed his so-called brother and pulled him towards the inn. A group of Pau'un ran past him a lines of two, weapons ready. Darth Kilvaari jogged after the last two. "What's going on?"

"Find shelter tourist, the city is under attack!" His companion added something else in the native language that Kilvaari couldn't understand. He needed to analyze the situation and then decide if they should wait things out and hide, or attempt to regroup. Then he could see at the edge of the city, a drop ship hovered, and a door slid open. There were Sith markings on the ship, and a microchip sigil. It was filled with modified scrap droids. _Darth Syntheon's forces._

The droids were painted a sleek black color, but that was just about the only uniform thing about them. The droids were made entirely by recycling metal and electronics. This caused them all to have different variations in design. No two droids looked exactly alike. It was said that Darth Syntheon has a factory on his flagship that can collect ruined ships, tanks, even buildings, and turn them all into combat droids that serve him. Some rumors even said that there were no non-robotic humans allowed on board.

The Pau'un militia immediately opened fire on the droids, which told Kilvaari that there have been other droids elsewhere that have already attacked. That or communications with the drop ships were ignored and taken to be hostile. The droids were cheaply created, and used cheap blasters. Some fired handheld blasters, while others attacked from wrist blasters. The ten militia men and women were quickly overrun by the thirty or so droid attackers. The scrap droids kept charging forward fearlessly.

Darth Kilvaari bent his legs, and then fired off from the ground and somersaulted through the air to land in-between the two groups. He had to duck a laser from one of the militia, and then sidestep another, but by then he was in the ebb and flow of deflecting the scrap droid's attacks back at them. The last one had gotten close enough for him to defeat it with a quick slash. The three surviving militia members cheered. Kilvaari looked at the pieces of scorched metal and wondered if Syntheon would reuse these parts once more. _Somethings cannot be helped_ , his Master had said before. Then more blaster fire broke out elsewhere. The troops thanked him and left.

He shut himself off from everything but the force. He heard more drop ships on the upper levels of the city. He felt the pitter patter of marching troops all over. He sensed the cowering residents. _If we try to regroup with the others, the enemy is thicker where they are. If we wait here, the enemy will only continue to tear apart the city until we're found, and then we'll face endless waves._ Darth Kilvaari opened his eyes. Zero was peeking out of the door of the inn. He went to him.

"Let's go. We're going to fight our way to a ship before it's too late."

"I understand. Dar tried contacting the others. They didn't answer." Zero waved for his brother and the astromech to join them. The droid went back to the transport carrying all their gear. "You go ahead R1, no one will think much of a droid."

Darth Kilvaari ignored the irony of Zero's suggestion, and started off to lead his friends to one of the dozens of stairwells or roads that circled the support pillars of the next platform. Darth Kilvaari didn't trust the main central elevators to be free of enemies. There was also a good chance they were simply on lockdown. Suddenly, Zero broke off from the group. Darien yelled at him. A moment later Zero emerged from a shop sporting a grenade launcher attachment on his favored assault rifle.

"Okay, now I'm ready."

 **4**

Darth Ryl gracefully deflected some of the sniper fire, while Darth Animosity rushed to meet the three Sith Apprentices. _He never cared too much for standing around,_ Darth Ryl thought. As he got closer to them, he gathered up force energy, then he released it all at once. The massive surge sent the two lower padawans flying into a building behind them. Darth Decimus had a force shield up in time, so he stood his ground and looked angry.

"So your pets may have survived that sandstorm, but they still need a lot of training. I took them out like week old garbage, HA." Darth Animosity's darksaber met with Decimus' lightsaber. Ryl continued to look for the sniper. He knew Animosity would fret if he tried to help him, and that annoyed him, because the sooner they took out Decimus the better. But he saw Animosity push him back towards the building his team was lying unconscious against.

Darth Ryl purposely let his lightsaber drop to his side to lure out the sniper. He walked casually and let the force flow throughout him. At the last possible second, he brought the double-bladed saber in time to intercept a shot. Now he had more than a general idea of where the attacker was. "I'll be right back," he called casually to Mektar Kelborn. Then he jumped onto an abandoned food stand using it as a step to launch himself into the air with a force enhanced jump.

Ryl gave the sniper credit, he stood his ground and tried to pick him out of the air. Ryl activated one side of his saber to deflect the shot mid-air, and then landed in a roll on a bridge. The sniper was in a window in an adjacent building. He abandoned the weapon completely and made a break for it. Darth Ryl cut him down before he got far, taking note of the fact that he was a local.

When he returned, he saw the Apprentice who called herself Darth Sniper had awakened and was helping Decimus. Animosity was struggling to block both lightsabers, specifically since Darth Sniper attacked irregularly with her hovering saber. Darth Ryl jumped down with his saber pointed towards the ground. He would have landed on Darth Sniper, but she dodged with a back handspring and called her saber back to her hand. "Do you really think you can stand against a Sith Lord?" Darth Ryl asked her.

She shrugged. "I guess I'll find out." Her saber flew through the air like a spear and he swatted it aside, only to sense it heading for his back. He twirled and blocked it again, and again. He let her think she had the advantage, and then he blocked it and reached out with his other hand and began strangling her with the force. Her saber dropped to the floor and deactivated as all of her attention diverted to getting away from his telekinetic grasp.

Then, the drop ships came.

"Damnit, I told him I could handle things," Decimus growled.

"Clearly you couldn't," Animosity goaded. Decimus broke out into a scream and Animosity got a cut into his arm. He was about to wound Decimus once more when the Apprentice backed off. He grabbed the other unconscious fool, and jumped onto a passing drop ship. The drop ship soon turned and raced back towards them. Darth Ryl had to release his opponent to block laser bolts. Rubbing her neck, she dashed to join her fleeing partners. The lightsaber she dropped shot towards the drop ship deactivated, like a magnet.

Darth Ryl considered sending all of his energy into a force lightning strike strong enough to destroy the fleeting drop ship, but ignored the urge. _They're not as important as getting off this world is. Especially if it's under siege from Darth Syntheon._ He looked up and saw the dozens of dropships in the sky. Moments later, the sounds of battle were prevalent. It brought him back to when he took Utapau under control. The local Pau'uns fought back then too, but he crushed them easily enough. _Hopefully they'll put up a better fight this time._ But deep down he knew that Syntheon wasn't the only Sith Lord out there who would crush this world. Kren had to of made it through too.

"We need to get off this world," Darth Animosity repeated.

 **5**

"Please take me with you, I can fight!" The Twi'lek said in basic. He was green-skinned and alone. He looked to be around the same age as Darien.

Darth Kilvaari looked at the rest of his group. "I don't know, but I guess you can stick with us for right now since you're not local."

"Great, now we have an egg _and_ an extra person to protect. Great." Darien Garr lived for danger, but of a different variety. His hacking skills couldn't do squat against a rogue blaster shot or a grenade, or a lightsaber, for that matter. Nonetheless, he was wearing his brother's helmet and had his sidearm ready.

It wasn't quite night yet, but darkness fell early in the city of Nap'aun Unta because of it's geographical location. The days were thirty-two hours, but for the city in the sinkhole, there was only about ten hours of daylight. The result was a bright orange sky, but dark city. The lights all came on at once, some on the ceilings of platforms, others on buildings.

"Thank you, thank you!" The Twi'lek took out a blaster pistol and followed them. One of the building lights flashed on and blinded him temporarily. He scurried after them.

"Watch your back around this one," Darth Kilvaari said in a quiet tone, (mostly to Zero). "Just in case."

They came across another raiding party of scrap droids. Kilvaari went in close to draw their fire, while the other three plastered them with bolts of their own. "That was easier than I thought it'd be! This road here will take us to the top platform where R1L1 is heading to the meet up point with the other two scary guys," Darien said. When they reached the top platform of the city, they saw that the destruction was the worst up here. It's where most of the drop ships had landed, and some small aircraft were strafing buildings and firing on them.

"You were saying?" Zero said sarcastically.

 _Why did I need to program him with sarcasm, why oh why?_ Darien wondered. Then their newest party member, the Twi'lek, screamed and said something was behind them. They all turned to find more scrap droids, but this time a small tank was in front of them.

"GO! I'll catch up!" Darth Kilvaari yelled. He tossed Darien the bag that had the egg in it, and then he was already darting towards the droids. He sent out a force push and some of the scrap droids towards the front fell backwards.

"You're gonna fight a TANK?" Darien called back. He was already backpedaling and lining up shots on the droids as they began getting back up.

"It's a _light_ tank. I can handle it." Darien barely heard him. Zero was already pulling him away from the action. When Darien glanced back one last time, he saw Kilvaari dancing atop the tank, dodging and swatting at lasers from all directions. He picked up two droids with his mind and flung them off the ramp. _I kind of hope that isn't the last I see of you, Kil_.

Down the way a little, three of the local militia threw their weapons down and surrendered. The squad of droids stood there, almost as if frozen for a moment. Then two moments later they gunned them down. Zero pushed him into an alleyway. "Dar, I can feel the signals. Those droids operate under a hive mind. They needed to process what to do with surrendering militia. There's a chain of command kind of like a real army."

"That sucks for those police guys."

"Don't you see, I'm saying you should be able to break that chain of command and intercept the signal. I think you could potentially control a squad if you can hack the signal and adjust the commands."

"Wow, you're a pretty neat droid," the Twi'lek said timidly.

"I'm not a droid! I'm a human with special cybernetic powers." The Twi'lek looked at Darien who only shrugged. Then the droids saw Zero and opened fire. He ducked behind the alley with them, and leaned out to fire a grenade from his new launcher attachment. The shot collided with them and tore all of them except two apart. They returned fire and one hit impacted Zero's shields.

Darien was typing frantically into his comlink channel. He had to manually hack into the signal being sent down. First he traced it back to the capital ship sending it, apparently called _Apparatus_ , then he tried to see if he could hack into the entire signal and control the entire droid force. He quickly realized that would be next to impossible to do in under a day, especially with his limited equipment and tech. A small rotating dish appeared on his wrist so he could strengthen his signal. "I should be able to control about a squad worth of troops at a time. So long as they're local. I've found the algorithm I need, now I just need to pass or break some firewalls and reissue local commands."

"Watch out!" The Twi'lek fired his blaster and headshotted two droids that entered the alley from a different entrance. He put the blaster away and went to the corner. As soon as three more droids rounded it, he took out a vibroblade and jumped at them.

"Wow, not half-bad!" Darien said as the green-skinned alien stood over the scrap metal. "Now check this," then a red holopad appeared before him. His left arm with the datapad glowed a bright blue. He swiped his hand across it and they both turned green. Zero finished off the two scrap droids and turned to face them.

"You did this?" he asked.

"Yup, my vibroblade is ionized. Super effective against droids."

"Shhhhh. Don't let my new friends hear that," Darien said, as more scrap droids spilled into the alleyway from both directions with their weapons put away. After two minutes they had seven of them. Their eyes were flashing green. "Well Zero, bro, looks like I got us a nice little escort so we can be like all those rich folk back home on Taris." He was grinning.

 **6**

Their fleet was perfectly organized. The ships were lined up around the capital ships, and Lord Kren thought it was the most beautiful sight he had seen since the time that he was elected to the council of High Sith Lords. Back then they had a million Sith gather to pay tribute and respect to their new leader. One day soon he would not just have an army and loyal citizens showing their support, but the entire galaxy. All for him too. He wouldn't have to share the glory or the power. He might even go on to be known as the greatest Sith of all time.

 _I will carve my mark on this galaxy. I will be feared and loved. I'll make it all mine._

Paxar Kren was satisfied. The communications division had succeeded in blocking all communications from the city called Nap'aun Unta. All escaping ships had been destroyed or captured. Darth Raven had advised him that it might be wise to board and capture even civilian ships. Their resources were limited, but they could make anything into a transport or a weapon if they wanted too. Worst comes to worst, he said, that monster Darth Syntheon could reconstruct it in the factory in his ship.

Admiral Motley walked up to Lord Kren, who was sitting in the command chair on the bridge. When Kren wasn't present, Admiral Motley had the pleasure of sitting there. "My lord, would you like me to contact Darth Syntheon for an update?"

Kren considered it for a moment. "Sure. We don't want to give the Republic time to try to intervene." After a few minutes, the cybernetic creature finally answered. Paxar Kren loathed waiting.

The hologram that presented Darth Syntheon was a disturbing one. He wasn't on a command bridge, nor a typical holoroom where important councils are typically had or where crucial messages are exchanged. Instead he was in a small room filled with consoles and screens. He was in a meditative position with his eyes (if you could even call them eyes,), shut. There were dozens of wires attached to him and plugged into him in all directions. He looked like a sentient battery.

Kren saw the disgust on Admiral Motley who made no move to hide it. Perhaps that was because Syntheon's closed eyes. "Hello Admiral. My Lord."

"How is the siege going?" _Are the locals putting up a fight?_ He almost asked, but he didn't care if they did. "Have you located the traitors?" The two of them stood and watched the hologram uneasily for almost three minutes. "Syntheon?" he said in an agitated tone after his meager patience wore out.

"Forgive me my lord. I am quite busy at the moment. I'm overseeing my entire army. The scrap droids operate fifty-nine percent more efficiently when I assist them." Lord Kren couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Yes, several of my droids have encountered them thus far. They have split into two groups."

"And you thought mere _scrap droids_ would be enough to subdue two Sith Lords?" _I thought he would be smarter than that_.

"Never. The scrap droids are a simple distraction. I have more sophisticated ways of taking down other Sith. If things become more complicated, I'll simply go see to things myself."

Lord Kren got a slight chill from the way he said that. "I can't suffer any more failures from my subordinates. Skip whatever steps you were planning, and see to it yourself." _If not, I have a very special plan of my own._ And with that, he couldn't help but smile. Darth Syntheon wasted no time. He ended the transmission. Kren presumed he would follow orders.

Once the wretched Ryl was captured and interrogated, he would execute him and his pathetic apprentice. Then they would demolish Utapau, the very world that Ryl chose to rule. It would be the ultimate statement. Then he thought Darth Animosity could be turned to join his cause, if not, he too would die. Even more sure, was that the cowardly hacker from Taris would serve him. He'd keep him close, on his very own ship, and make good use of the kid's talent. Finally, he would use Utapau as an example for those who oppose him, and he would continue to gather strength and support until he could crush the Republic and the so-called Separatists they were fighting too.

 **7**

"We're going to need your best ship. One big enough to carry passengers."

"Can't you see the city is under attack? I can't make any transactions right now! And even if I did they would just shoot you down!"

Darth Ryl and Darth Animosity exchanged a glance. "I'm afraid we weren't asking." Realization dawned on the Utai's face and he muttered in his native language. Then he barked orders in the language. Two droid bodyguards were activated and took out their weapons. Darth Animosity quickly force pulled the small alien into his arms and then activated his darksaber.

"Tell them to stand down. We don't want to hurt you or your droids. You may have need of them if the invaders decide to come here." The small alien squirmed and muttered some more words. The droids shut themselves down. Animosity dropped him, and he jumped away. He looked at them angrily, but then defeat surfaced on his face.

"Follow me. Downstairs there's a ship that can run a blockade if you're crazy enough." Then the doors slid open. Ryl activated his lightsaber and spun on his heel, but it was only an astromech droid. It was Animosity's astromech droid. R1L1 came rolling in and then it spoke up in its master's voice.

"What're you lookin' at fishface?"

Darth Ryl rolled his eyes and deactivated his lightsabers while resuming a normal stance. Animosity jogged up to his astromech and gave it a metallic pat on the head. "Good to see you too buddy. C'mon, we're being introduced to our new ship."

They descended several flights of stairs together. R1L1 made a loud _thwump thump thwump thump_ as his wheels rolled off of each step and hit each metallic step one after another.

Down in the sublevel, there was a private hangar which was currently closed, and three extra ships on platforms. There were more deactivated security droids down on this level too, Darth Ryl noted. Back when he was known as Ulon Belamish, he had been quite fascinated with ship designs and engineering specifications. He loved upgrading and improving technology, even if he wasn't the best by any means. That's why it hurt so much to lose _Ryloth Spear_ after all of this time. That ship was _his_ , and he spent hours upon hours tampering with it and trying to improve as much as he could. He had dumped thousands of credits to make the ship reach it's top potential, and it had always proved worth it. It saddened Ryl to think he increased the ship's original worth tenfold, and yet it was rotting in the Utapau sun, no new owners awaiting it. _Ryloth Spear_ deserved better.

"Ah, here's what the Mandalorians call the 'sharpest of all the blades'. Your best stock." He rubbed his hand on a shuttle as they passed it. The Utai gave him a look that said _Don't touch_ , but that was the best he warning he could offer to a Mandalorian in full body armor.

"We'll be taking this one." Darth Ryl said, pointing to the ship in the middle of the three. He could see it was even bigger than _Ryloth Spear_ , almost thrice it's size. It looked like a piece of clay that was meant to be sculpted. It was a ship created so it could be modified. By the look of the sleek design, it could be turned into a powerful weapon and a fast escape vehicle. It could transport, drop off, fight, and run. All the things Ryl liked in a ship.

The Utai shifted uncomfortably. "That's the biggest ship this one has! It's also the most expensive. It would have trouble running a blockade. This one urges you to reconsider! Perhaps something smaller?"

Darth Ryl opened up the alien's small hand and gave him a pile of credits. The Utai looked dumbfounded. "I know that won't cover the cost, but it's all we can spare. Consider it the 'we could kill you and take it if we wanted to' discount. It should be over three hundred thousand credits." The alien looked dumbfounded. "I'm going to need you to upload all of the specifications of the ship onto my datapad, fuel it up completely, and bring me any and all spare parts you have lying around." The two were locked in each other's glare, but the Sith Lord won. The Utai scurried off.

"R1L1, go with Darth Ryl and follow his instructions. Let's get this ship running. I'm gonna go retrieve our other friends." The droid beeped it's acknowledgement to it's master and then followed after Ryl who was examining the outside of the ship, area by area. Darth Ryl couldn't help himself. For the first time since they crash landed on Utapau, he was excited.

 **8**

Darth Syntheon's ship was one of the fastest in the entire Sith fleet. It didn't take him long to exit his flagship _Apparatus_ and get planetside. Utilizing feeds from the optical sensors on all of the scrap droids, Syntheon was able to cross reference the scrap droids that saw his targets, and at specific frames before they got destroyed. Thus, he could erect the most likely paths that his targets were travelling and eliminate less likely possibilities. He called it his hunting algorithm.

"So which targets are our best bet?" Darth Terminus asked. She was in the co-pilot seat facing the opposite direction of her master. Her violet colored skin was tinted orange from the fading Utapau sun.

"My scrap droids haven't seen the HPT Darth Ryl or Darth Animosity in a while, which means they have probably found shelter. All we know is they're on the top floor." She nodded quietly, knowing he would have more to say after double checking his data. Syntheon almost never made assumptions or guesses that couldn't be backed up by statistical data or other forms of logistics. "However, his apprentice Darth Kilvaari, the hacker, Darien Garr, and the droid MAD-008 and one other currently unknown, have been detected fighting their way towards the top floor. They are likely trying to regroup."

"Therefore they're our best bet."

"Precisely," his voice said, sounding almost a little pleased.

"So do we follow them or take them out before their strength is unified?"

"Both," Darth Syntheon answered immediately. Then he sent out a command for all top level scrap droids not in combat, to converge on his location.

They landed the ship on the highest building in the city. The high platform was most likely used to mass transit goods from Nap'aun Unta to other cities but it was currently vacant. Syntheon and his Twi'lek apprentice exited the ship and planted a mobile shield generator to protect his prized ship from burglary or bombs or anything else hazardous.

Syntheon force jumped to a lower building about forty feet away, leaving a mark on the rooftop where he landed. Darth Terminus used a grapple to get to the building, sliding down the metallic wire until she reached the same point. She looked down at the streets below and saw the scrap droids marching towards their building. "It seems some of my units are still intact, but refuse to respond to my orders. I'll have to re-hack them just to find out their locations. Then that will lead us to them even faster, I suspect." _Unless someone else is interfering with my signals, but I doubt that. The odds are stacked against that possibility considering we are hunting a hacker after all._

His faithful apprentice waited patiently, just like his scrap army dozens of feet below them, until he finally found a lock on their position. "Visual confirmation. They hacked some of my droids and are using them to fight. I have a location too. Let's move."

 **9**

It didn't take long for Darth Kilvaari to catch back up with the others. He cut through a scrap droid that was behind them, but was surprised when Darien was yelling at him to stop.

"What? Why?" Then he realized the scrap droids were walking _with_ them. Even though they weren't alive, he could still see from their body language that they were on their side. Before Darien could tell him, Kilvaari spoke. "You hacked them, good job!"  
"Damn straight I did," Darien said returning the Nautolan's grin. "And we have a new companion. His name is, uh,"

"Canji Lozarine," the green Twi'lek interjected. "A pleasure to meet you." He walked over and stuck his hand out at Darth Kilvaari.

Darth Kilvaari's smile faded. He gave the newcomer a suspicious look. He shook his hand almost awkwardly. Then gave Darien an inquisitive look.

"Don't worry Kil, he's cool. I told him if he helps us escape, we'll get him off world. He offered to pay us if we can help too."

"That wasn't your promise to make," Darth Kilvaari said almost coldly. "But as long as he can handle himself, I guess it's alright. We need to get going." They left, and Darth Kilvaari couldn't help but shake all of the different feelings he had. He couldn't pin any of them down, so he just kept his guard up the whole time. They fought their way through some scrap droids, but their seemed to be less and less.

The city on the top floor was filled with scorch marks, burning buildings, and rubble from former structures. Darien wondered what protocol for civilian evacuation was, because it seemed to him like there was none. Locals just hid in whatever building was still standing.

They turned onto the biggest road that bisected the top floor of the pale city, and saw Darth Animosity fighting a bunch of scrap droids. Some of the ones he was fighting were specially made to fight melee combatants. They had personal arm shields and vibroswords. Some had shields and sharp claws.

Darien called out to Darth Animosity, the same time that their scrap droid escort in the rear began opening fire. A force of roughly fifty scrap droids poured out from alleyways into the main road cutting off their retreat. They took cover behind some crates and a destroyed metal cart.

Two figures landed behind them again, and cut them off from Animosity once more. Darien's scrap droids were already fighting their electronic brethren when Kilvaari turned around in time to block two short red lightsaber slashes aimed at Zero.

"Darth Syntheon," Kilvaari whispered, looking past his apprentice. He was suddenly frightened. He wished that Darth Ryl were here.

 **10**

Darth Animosity saw his comrades get trapped in by numerous scrap droid reinforcements, and the leader of their army. He wasn't sure if Darth Kilvaari could even defeat Darth Terminus, let alone her master. Especially because of the wear of constant motion and battle since they had crashed.

He summoned all of the force energy he could, and exploded it out in a shockwave knocking back the melee droids. He used the force to enhance his sprint, and then his somersaulting jump. Syntheon must have anticipated his intervention, because he turned and force pushed Animosity mid-air. Animosity landed on his feet, but as he looked up Syntheon was already rushing him.

Syntheon's left hand opened up at the palm and a lightsaber protruded out, seeking Animosity's chest. He responded by slapping it away with his darksaber. He usually didn't like to use his sidearm pistols in one on one combat, he felt it was dishonorable. But in this case he had to put his honor aside, because if he didn't give this Sith Lord his all, the others would die.

His six pistols shot out of his holsters telekinetically and opened fire simultaneously. Syntheon stood his ground, and projected a barrier around him. It absorbed all of Animosity's attacks with no sign of faltering. At first, he thought it was a force power, but then he realized that Darth Syntheon actually had a small personal shield generator built into his chest.

In the background he noticed Zero and Kilvaari were attacking Darth Terminus together, while some strange Twi'lek fought alongside Darien. Some of the scrap droids were fighting each other too, Darth Animosity noted with simple amusement.

Then he rushed Syntheon to test his blade against the shield, but the shield deactivated and Syntheon flipped away. "I can do the same trick as you," he said arrogantly. From under his cloak, his broad shoulders rolled down the lengths of his arms and the hovered away. They opened fire with uncommon ballistic weaponry. Animosity did not have a shield, and his darksaber wasn't meant for reflecting, let alone bullets instead of lasers.

During his strafe, he used his force grip, to turn one towards the other and it shot the other hovering drone to pieces. He was about to slam it on the ground when wires wrapped around his legs and tripped him. Syntheon dragged him across the ground the wires that came from his wrists, and then flung him twenty meters into a solid wall. Content, Syntheon turned his attention back to the others. But his drone flew to where Animosity was, and opened fire. Mektar Kelborn reflected most of the bullets with the force alone, the rest pelting his thick armor. When he stood up, it used a flamethrower that doused him in reddish orange flames. He summoned two pistols to his hands and shot down the drone, and then pushed the fire off of him with the force.

His armor was badly singed, and his body was bruised and aching but he still ran back to the others.

Darth Kilvaari couldn't even summon up enough force power to block the Sith Marauder's force attack. It sent Kilvaari crashing into a nearby building's window. Darth Terminus was quick, and she had already kicked him twice since they had begun their engagement. Zero didn't fight like a Jedi or a Sith, so Kilvaari thought that helped keep her off of balance. He quickly jumped back into the fray so that Zero wouldn't get overwhelmed.

Zero fired a grenade from his launcher attachment and Darth Terminus put up her forcefield up just in time to prevent getting shredded, but the blast still tore through her invisible defenses sending her tumbling backwards. Darth Kilvaari used this change to jump up and impale her, except he was met with a swift kick to the ribs in his descent that stifled his blow. Zero fired on her as she rolled back to her feet, but she was too quick.

Darth Syntheon managed to sneak up on Zero and put his hand on his back. Wires seeped out of his wrist like hungry snakes and dug into Zero's hard durasteel outer casing. Zero froze as if someone shut him off, but his optical sensors were still activated.

"CANJI! HELP!" Darien called out when he saw what Syntheon was up to. He opened fire and two blasts hit Syntheon square in the back before he moved out of the way. Canji the Twi'lek didn't turn around. Instead he was still firing upon the scrap droids ahead of them. "That's it," Darien muttered. "I've been saving this for a while." He took out a plain silver orb, it was a special grenade prototype he had been working on. He typed rapidly into his keypad on his left arm. A blue beam shot from his data tool to the silver orb and it beeped signalling that it was primed. He threw it.

When it detonated there was no explosion. At least no physical one. The invisible shockwave transmitted data directly into anything that could receive signals in the detonation zone. Darien's hack violated almost twenty scrap droids, immediately reprogramming them with his orders and directives. Thus, even more chaos ensued as even more scrap droids joined his side and fought for him.

This allowed him to run to Zero's side. Zero flinched at his touch, but then he went back to normal when he looked at his human brother. Before they could say any words to each other, they broke off to go help Kilvaari who was fighting tooth and nail against Darth Syntheon and his apprentice.

Darth Animosity joined just in time to force push Kilvaari out of the way of a slash that would have killed him.

Darth Syntheon was using a double-sided lightsaber now. "Fools. I have downloaded, recorded, and studied thousands of different duelists of all styles. I cannot be beaten in a fight."

"We'll see about that," Darth Animosity said. He lurched forward with amazing speed. Darth Terminus got in his way to stop him, but her force shield was still weak from being broken before. Animosity sent out a momentous force push launching her into a nearby wall. Inspired, Kilvaari and Zero moved in towards Syntheon too. Darien lined up a shot.

Darth Syntheon hovered a foot off the ground and spread out his arms before bringing them back forward like a stretch. Wires shot out of both of his arms and wrapped around all four of them. The wires split into more wires and then more.

They squeezed Kilvaari so hard, he dropped his lightsaber and his head went limp. Zero was starting to spark, although from the pressure or some other subtle technological reason, no one new. Darien grunted in pain, and then even more so when the ends of the wires began to dig into his flesh like mechanical roots. Animosity's armor protected him from all of this, so he struggled to bring his darksaber down onto the wires, but to no avail.

Syntheon laughed a sinister robotic laugh. Then he sent electrical charges through all of the wires. At this point, the scrap droids had surrounded Canji and brought him over to watch. All of Darien's reprogrammed ones were destroyed.

The electrocution short circuited Zero and knocked Darth Kilvaari and Darien Garr unconscious, but not before they screamed in agony. Darth Animosity was suffering too, but he was too focused to let pain deter him. He used the force to levitate his blaster pistol, feeling the handle and the trigger with his mind. Then he charged up a blaster and fired it full-power into Darth Syntheon's head. It blew apart a fragment of his skull. The wires instantly receded back to Syntheon, who started falling backwards.

"NO!" Darth Terminus called. She ran to her master. Darth Animosity already fell face first on the ground like the others, but he force gripped a second of his blasters and opened fire rapidly with both of them. Several shots hit Darth Syntheon's limp chest before Terminus appeared in front of him to deflect the rest of the shots. There was a loud smash as Syntheon's scorching body hit the hard ground behind her.

Worried that she might try to enact revenge on his unconscious comrades, Darth Animosity let the blasters fall to the ground, then he stood up with his Darksaber in hand. She looked at him, a fellow Sith Marauder, with white-hot hate. Then she deactivated her weapons and grabbed her master and fled. The scrap droids followed as well. It was a good thing too, because Darth Animosity used the absolute last of his strength and stamina to stand up. He collapsed immediately after she was out of sight.

 **11**

A large ship almost big enough to be considered a freighter or corvette landed on the rooftop of a nearby building. It was roughly about the size of a suburban house. The landing gear crushed a table when it set down. Darth Ryl ran down the landing pad and force gripped a Twi'lek who was standing over his friends.

Darth Ryl jumped off of the roof while still maintaining his telekinetic grip on the stranger's neck. The green skinned Twi'lek tried talking. "Begging won't save you," Darth Ryl said coldly.

"He's with us," Darien said, rubbing his temple. He tried to sit up, but his body was numb all over. Darth Ryl looked at Darien, then the Twi'lek. He dropped his hand and then Twi'lek fell to his knees gasping for breath.

"What happened to you guys?" he asked as he picked up both Darth Kilvaari and Darth Animosity, noticeably struggling with the latter.

"I don't know his name, but he's the leader of these scrap droids. I don't know how we're alive right now to be honest," Darien chuckled, and then held his ribs and grimaced in pain. He had multiple tears in his jumpsuit that were red and bronze with blood.

"Syntheon," Ryl spat, bemused as well that they had lived. "I got us a ship. There's no time to waste. We need to leave." He bent his knees and force jumped to the rooftop. He dropped both of them up there because of the strain. "Wake up you freeloaders."

Darien managed to get up and he walked over to Zero. "Zero? Zero? ZERO!"

"What's wrong down there?"

"I'm not sure, but it's nothing good. I don't want to reboot or reactivate him, it could be dangerous. He could lose memory, or be the equivalent of robot brain dead."

"That sucks. Bring him up or leave him, we need to bug out now." Ryl replied coldly.

"Screw you," Darien said hurt. He was typing frantically away at his datapad trying to figure out what to do.

Darth Ryl sighed. He looked at his apprentice who was beginning to move around. "Just bring him on the ship, R1L2 can probably help." A light shone in Darien's eyes.

"Uhm," he said, looking embarrassed. "I'm not strong enough to carry him." Ulon Belamish rolled his eyes and jumped back down.

The green skinned Twi'lek went over to him. "Here, let me help."

Darth Animosity awoke in a bed. All of his armor was still on him except his helmet. It only took him a few seconds of disorientation to realize he was on a ship. He knew the interior of a ship anywhere. He pushed off the light sheet, and slid his feet off the bed.

His body ached quite a lot. It was what his people sometimes referred to as a good old fashioned Mandalorian Hangover, just barely surviving a fight, but feeling the effects the next day. But was it actually the next day?

He was quite clearly in a Medbay. Darth Kilvaari was sleeping nearby in a similar bed hooked up to equipment. Darth Animosity didn't know what the information on a nearby screen meant, but he guessed it meant it was pretty serious if Kilvaari was hooked up to that and he wasn't. Duraglass doors automatically slid open to let him walk out of the Medbay. This brought him to a hallway. There was another glass door across from him with a visible room that appeared to be the eating area. There were two tables that could sit four, and an array of storage and cooking equipment.

To his left was the end of the hallway and another door. To his right was a staircase and a ladder. Both went up a floor, and down a floor. Also to his right, were two stations at either side of the ship and two more doors. Darth Animosity guessed one of the stations was for manually operating weapon systems, and the other an emergency terminal for secondary systems in case the cockpit, or bridge was damaged. There were several duraglass windows scattered on this floor, and Darth Animosity could see they were indeed in space. No lightspeed though, it seemed more like they were… drifting.

Darth Animosity decided to try the other doors first. He found a bathroom, and the other was the the hyperdrive and armory. There was also a safe in that room and Zero's inanimate body. Darth Animosity left the room and limped up the stairs to the second floor. He saw it was less spacious up there and there was only two rooms. The rest of the second floor was a cross between a cockpit and a small bridge. There three consoles and a captain's seat. The consoles were likely nav, pilot and co-pilot. Possibly one operated weapon systems too. The viewport was considerably bigger on this floor, allowing 360 degree vision. You could see anything unless it was below you, but Mek was certain radar and possibly even cameras accommodated for that.

Since the bridge was empty, Mektar tried the door on the back right. He saw it was the Captain's Quarters, and noted that it was quite luxurious, and that his old rival's equipment was already on the floor. When he exited the room, the other door opened and Darien walked out. He looked angry.

"Oh you're finally up. How do you like the new ship?" he asked, but clearly didn't really care, because he walked right past the Mandalorian Sith.

He ignored the hacker and entered the room. It was a conference slash communications room. Darth Ryl was sitting at the head chair. His hands were covering his face. At first, Mektar Kelbourn thought he might have been weeping. The other Twi'lek was at the table, reading something on his datapad.

"I'm glad you're finally awake. As you probably figured out, we made it off-world. This ship has better cloaking capabilities than any stealth ship from our century." Darth Ryl let that idea sink in once more. They were essentially trapped in the future.

"It seems like quite the nice ship. Makes me miss mine. Where are we gonna go next?"

Darth Ryl sighed his infamous sigh. "Darien said he thinks he knows what Darth Kilvaari would suggest. Apparently a force sensitive seer told them something about going to a planet of cities, garbage, and massive trees or something like that." He began cleaning the dirt and grime out of his double-sided lightsaber. If it ever got jammed up it could be potentially dangerous to him.

"All on one world?" Animosity asked stupidly.

"No. Three. The same amount of Force Shards we would hypothetically need to travel through time once again. That's the _only_ reason why I'm even considering it. It's still vague though. Any of those descriptions could apply to a hundred worlds each."

Animosity put a hand on his chin. "Could be Coruscant, or Taris. Maybe one of the Yavin moons again. Or Kashyyyk. As for a garbage planet, maybe Nal Hutta? Nar Shaada? No clue, really."

"If the Sith are really extinct, every moment we even exist in this timeline is dangerous. Our good old friend Kren decided to bomb the city while we were leaving. I'm surprised you slept through a good old fashioned orbital bombardment. Nap'aun Unta sank even deeper into the sinkhole. Now it's a pile of ashes and rubble. Galactic politics will hear of this eventually, and once the Jedi Order hears the Sith aren't extinct,"

"We're gonna be hunted down like a bunch of tourists on Trandosha," Animosity said.

"Exactly. So we don't have time to check a planet until we know more. Darien wanted us to go to Taris. I refuse to let any petty nostalgia determine where we head."

Darth Animosity put a hand on his chin, thinking hard and tactfully. "You seem to be different than the rest of us. You're basically our leader, like it or not." Darth Ryl opened his mouth to protest but Animosity stopped him. "You should meditate on this and see if the the Force will guide you to where we should be going."

Darth Ryl didn't have much to say back to that, so he simply nodded. The door to the meeting room slid open and Darth Kilvaari was standing there.

"Darth Kilvaari!" Mektar Kelborn exclaimed.

"What in the stars is that thing?" Darth Ryl asked.

Darth Kilvaari had a small blue reptile in his hands. It was armored in thick leathery skin and glared at them through golden eyes. It had a tail that was as long as the creature was, and four small but wide legs. Small spikes lined it's spine and spots of dark blue hair were starting to grow among the spikes. It's face had a sharp beak at the end. There were tiny fragments of an egg shell littered across it's body.

Darth Kilvaari smiled. "This is Zarp. The newest member of our crew."


End file.
